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THE HERO OF 
STONY POINT 




^Wayne aimed and fired one of the field pieces himself.' " 

[page 71] 



THE HERO OF 
STONY POINT 

ANTHONY WAYNE 



BY 

JAMES BARNES 



AUTBOB OF "filFLE AND CAHAVAN," "gIANT OF THREE WABS,' 
OF EBIE," ETC. 






ILLUSTRATED BY 

T. DE THULSTRUP 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK LONDON 

1916 






COPTKIGHT, 1916, BT 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



OCT 30'mi6 



Printed in the United States of America 



'CI.A446173 



CONTENTS 



CBArrcB 
1. 



School Days at Chester— The Fighting 
Dunce 



II. The Great Snow Fight 

III. The Prelude to Great Deeds 

IV. Colonel Wayne at Trois Rivieres 
V. Anthony Wayne Asks for Action 

VI. The Campaign of 77 . 
Vn. From Whitehorse Tavern to Germantown 
VIII. Valley Forge and the Long Dark Days . 

IX. Rear Guard Fighting and Monmouth 
X. The Climax— Stony Point . 

XI. Wayne Wins the Disaffected 

XII. Leading up to Yorktown . 

XIII. In the South 

XIV. The End of the War ^ 
XV. Called Back to the Army . 

XVI. Fighting the Northern Savages 
XVII. The Government Commissioner and 
clusion 



Con. 



1 

14 

22 

32 

45 

58 

72 

85 

98 

113 

128 

142 

150 

160 

177 

184 

201 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Wayne aimed and fired one of the field pieces him- 
self" Frontispiece 

rAOINQ PAGE 

*'The great snow fight" 16 

" Torward, my brave fellows, forward !' " . . . 122 
"The treaty with the Indians" 202 



THE HERO 
OF STONY POINT 

CHAPTER I 

SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER— THE FIGHTING 
DUNCE 

A SMALL boy of eleven sat on the end of 
a newly felled log in a clearing of the 
Chester woods. He was a sturdily built, thick- 
set youngster whose appearance would have lit- 
tle suggested the occupation at which we find 
him. With compressed lips and a deal of squint- 
ing he was trying to force through the eye of a 
much too small needle the end of a much too 
large thread. After many trials, pursued with 
an infinite patience, he succeeded. On the log be- 
side him lay two stiips of red cloth. Tucked 
into the edge of his small three-cornered hat, 
was a bundle of turkey feathers that only a 
half an hour before had been proudly spread 

1 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

by the old gobbler, wbo, panting and much di- 
sheveled, was biding in an angle of the chicken 
yard fence a few rods away. The boy had had 
his eyes on the tail feathers for many a long 
day and had waited for the moment when, with- 
out fear of interference, he conld despoil the 
old gobbler of his principal adornment. 

With remarkable skill the boy began to sew 
the feathers between the strips of red cloth, and 
having basted them in so they stood firmly up- 
right, he measured the band round his head, 
sewed the two ends together and, going down to 
a pool in the brook, looked at his reflection with 
all the self-satisfaction of a Narcissus. Going 
back to the log where he had left his coat and 
hat, he discovered that there was a rent in his 
coat sleeve; sitting down, he mended it neatly 
before putting it on. 

Although incongruous, the Indian-like decora- 
tion became the boy's face better than the old 
three-cornered hat, for he had the high cheek 
bone, the deep-set eyes of the red man, and his 
little hawk-like features needed but to be a 
shade or two darker than the coat of tan that 

2 



SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER 

covered them, to make him, to all appearances, 
a juvenile member of the Seven Nations. 

Carrying his hat under his arm, he walked 
along the path through the blackberry bushes, 
heading past the chicken yard where the hen 
turkeys had not yet settled down from the ex- 
citement they had undergone in witnessing the 
struggle and discomfiture of their lord and 
master. Reaching a bam and stable made of 
rough hewn logs, the boy bent down and, lifting 
aside an old barrel-head, disclosed a hiding- 
place in the stone foundation. It was here that 
he kept the things most near and dear to him ; 
a bow whittled out of a hickory limb, a bundle 
of cleverly made arrows, and an actual Indian 
tomahawk that had been given to him by a man 
who had made a trading trip out into the great 
western forests. The boy carefully deposited 
the head-dress with his other treasures, then 
hastening round the corner of the bam he ran 
through the garden toward the large stone 
farmhouse owned by his father, who, on this 
day, had been away attending court down at 
Chester — an absence which, to tell the truth, 

3 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

was one of the main reasons for the raid on the 
old gobbler. 

The reason for the boy's running was the fact 
that down the road that stretched in front of 
the farmhouse, he had discerned a figure on 
horseback coming along at a steady trot. As 
rather breathlessly he entered the back door 
the rider dismounted at the front veranda. 
The two met in the long hallway. 

**Well, Anthony, my son," said the tall, well- 
set-up man as he looked down with a quizzical 
smile, **have you lost anything?" 

**No, father," replied the boy, '*not that I 
know of." 

Isaac Wayne took something from under his 
arm. 

**I found your school books 'tother side of 
the road near your Uncle Gilbert's house; I 
did not know whether you had dropped 
them." 

' * I left them there, ' ' said the boy frankly. ' ' 1 
was going to return and get them, sir." 

**Too heavy to carry home, Anthony?" 

**No, father, but old Jess started a rabbit 
4 



SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER 

by the side of the road and we chased it down 
by the edge of the clearing. I dropped the 
books there. ' ' 

Mr. Wayne opened a copy book, very ragged 
and dog-eared. * ^ Will yon tell me, my son, what 
is the meaning of all this?" 

He pointed to a page covered with lines and 
strange markings. 

** Jnst a plan, sir," the boy replied, fidgeting 
a little, although he was looking his father 
straight in the face. 

'*A plan of what?" 

'*0f a battle, father." 

**And when and where was this battle!" 

**It has not been fought yet, sir. I was just 
making it up." 

Mr. Wayne closed the book with a smile that 
quite belied the seeming sternness of his next 
words. 

**If you spent more time over your books and 
less in dreaming, you would make a more useful 
citizen, Anthony. I don't want you to grow up 
a know-nothing." 

**I'd like to be useful, sir." • 
5 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

**Well,'' replied Mr. Wayne, **go out in the 
pasture and bring in the cows. I'll take you 
at your word if I have to make a farmer of 
you ! ' ' 

*^Yes, sir," said the boy, and went out of 
the house. 

Young Anthony Wayne came quite naturally 
by any leaning toward military dreaming; his 
grandfather had been a soldier and his father 
had fought in the campaigns against the In- 
dians in Western Pennsylvania and the borders 
of what is now Tennessee. It was in 1722 that 
Anthony Wayne, the grandfather of our hero, 
had moved from Ireland to Chester, Pennsyl- 
vania. He was a man of great independeaice of 
character, as evidenced by the fact that he had 
left behind him a very good country estate in 
County Wicklow, because he did not like the 
way the Irish peasantry had been treated after 
the defeat of the forces of King James the 
Second by those of King William. With this 
military emigrant came his wife and four sons. 
Three of the sons settled quite close to one 
another on the Pennsylvania uplands, where 

6 



SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER 

their father was the owner of sixteen hundred 
acres. The site of the old homestead is now 
the site of Waynesboro that has perpetuated 
the family name, but it is by no means the only 
place where it is to be found on the map. His 
youngest son, Isaac, possessed more of his 
father's character than the others, who seemed 
content to take up the quiet life of farmers or 
the sedentary occupation of a schoolmaster, 
which was followed by Gilbert. When the elder 
Anthony died he divided his estate among the 
three sons that survived him, and to Isaac fell 
the best of the farms. Isaac had married the 
daughter of Eichard Iddings, who was also a 
wealthy land owner in the same county of Ches- 
ter. Elizabeth Wayne was a woman of remark- 
able character. 

Having thus introduced the younger An- 
thony's forebears, let us take up his life at the 
very interesting period when he began to de- 
velop individualities of his own. There were 
many of the neighbors' sons who also went to 
school at ** Uncle Gilbert's" and many of these 
scholars were to be closely associated in the 

7 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

stirring and troublous times in the wars that 
were to come. 

A short time, perhaps it might have been only 
a week or so, after his father had found his 
school books in the lane, Anthony, known to 
his comrades outside of school hours as **Sha- 
bo-na" — ^the Gray Fox — and the best shot with 
a hickory bow of all the tribes that he himself 
had organized, sat on a stool in the comer of 
the schoolhouse, looking as little like an Indian 
chief as any small boy could look. Instead of 
the crown of feathers on his head he had a 
conical ornament made of ordinary brown pa- 
per, on which was printed very legibly, in his 
Uncle Gilbert's back hand, the word, ** Dunce." 
But if the position was ignominious it cannot be 
said that Anthony's demeanor was in the least 
humble. From under the edge of the tight- 
fitting paper rim he surveyed his schoolmates 
with a look of defiance, if not of open challenge. 

He held not the slightest resentment toward 
his Uncle Gilbert, for he was perfectly aware 
that the punishment he was undergoing, if such 
it could be called, was well earned, but there was 

8 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

a comforting thought in his mind — and in the 
schoolmaster's also — that he did not care for 
study ; the dead languages did not appeal to him 
and he had fully decided that so far as he was 
concerned the longer they stayed dead the bet- 
ter. At figuring, when Anthony had cared to 
apply himself, he was as good as any boy in 
school. There were few popular histories in 
those days and juvenile literature was confined 
mostly to rather stupid tales that pointed ob- 
vious morals or trite advice as to conduct, 
habits, and spiritual training. There was 
hardly a book, however, in his father's library 
that dealt with anything military that Anthony 
had not read from cover to cover. 

There were sixteen boys in Gilbert Wayne's 
school, the eldest being but fourteen. At four- 
teen the days of instruction practically ceased, 
except for those lads whose fathers were 
wealthy enough to send them to one of the col- 
leges or academies in the larger towns where 
the learned professions were taught. Anthony 
Wayne's father was well to do and he had con- 
ceived some ambitions in regard to his son's 

9 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

career, but often the boy had puzzled him, as 
he was now puzzling schoolmaster Gilbert, who 
had his own ideas of disciplining his young 
charges. He was one of the few schoolmasters 
who did not believe in the use of the rod and 
never had he lifted his hand in chastisement, 
even for breaches of behavior that deserved 
strenuous handling. 

When the school was dismissed, this day, the 
boys trooped forth ; one of them, Peter Iddings, 
a distant connection of Anthony's on his moth- 
er's side, came out last, holding something be- 
hind his back. It was the duncecap that had 
so lately adorned our Hero 's brow. Beneath the 
humiliating label he had found time to print the 
words, '* Anthony Wayne, His Hat." With 
some ceremony he presented it to its late 
wearer. No champion's gauntlet thrown in 
challenge ever produced a quicker result. The 
small boy flew at Iddings like a tiger cat. It 
was a battle that had long been pending between 
the two and it was interrupted by the appear- 
ance of the schoolmaster, who dragged the 
somewhat disheveled and bleeding belligerents 

10 



SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER 

apart and, contrary to his custom, cuffed each 
one soundly and leading them bac(k into the 
schoolhouse, gave them a long talk on the bene- 
fits of peace in general. But, as it is with 
nations, so it is with individuals; it is some- 
times better to have it out to a finish, for smol- 
dering fires are more dangerous than fully ex- 
tinguished ashes. Under the big red oak tree 
within half an hour of the schoolmaster's hom- 
ily they were at it again. It was a prolonged 
and bitter struggle and ended in the younger 
boy extracting from his fallen antagonist the 
smothered sentence, '*IVe got enough. *' The 
fight established Anthony's prestige in the 
school. No duncecap as a bit of personal prop- 
erty is a disgrace to a champion fighter, and 
Sha-bo-na was established as one who not only 
must be listened to in council but respected on 
the battlefield. 

The scholarship, however, did not improve, 
for it was about this time that Uncle Gilbert 
indited the following letter, which was handed 
to Mr. Wayne by no less a faithful messenger 
than his son: — 

11 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

'*I really suspect," says Gilbert, **that pa- 
rental affection blinds you ; and that you have 
mistaken your son's capacity. Wbat lie may 
be best qualified for, I know not ; but one thing 
I am certain of, that he will never make a 
scholar. He may make a soldier ; he has already 
distracted the brains of two-thirds of the boys, 
under my direction, by rehearsals of battles and 
sieges, etc. They exhibit more the appearance 
of Indians and harlequins than of students ; this 
one, decorated with a cap of many colors ; and 
others, habited in coats as variegated as Jo- 
seph's of old; some, laid up with broken heads, 
and others with black eyes. During noon, in 
place of the usual games and amusements, he 
has the boys employed in throwing up redoubts, 
skirmishing, etc. I must be candid with you, 
brother Isaac: unless Anthony pays more at- 
tention to his books, I shall be under the painful 
necessity of dismissing him from the school.'* 

Isaac Wayne finished the letter without lift- 
ing his eyes to the face of the boy who, slightly 
flushed, was standing beside him at the old 
mahogany desk in his father's office. When he 

12 



SCHOOL DAYS AT CHESTER 

had finished, without comment, the father 
handed the letter to the boy. As the latter read, 
his chin trembled a little but he stood all the 
straighter. He knew that his father had been 
touched in his most vulnerable part — ^his pride. 
For a father's affections differ from those of 
a mother, who, no matter what her child may 
do, still has her heart and her arms open and 
her forgiveness ready before it is asked for. A 
father's love depends largely on his pride and 
his trust. It is reflective, as a mother's is in- 
stinctive. 

As Anthony placed the letter back in his 
father's outstretched fingers he waited for what 
might be coming. Was it to be a punishment — a 
restriction of privileges I His father was a man 
of few words — ^that the boy knew well — ^but he 
could make every word a stinging blow, harder 
to bear than bodily chastisement. The only 
thing the elder Wayne said was this : 

**It's in your hands, my boy." 

**Then give it to me, father; let me keep it 
until I can hand you another one." 

There was no more said. 
13 



CHAPTER n 

THE GREAT SNOW FIGHT 

IT was a very early winter — ^that of 1759— one 
long remembered for the depth of the snow- 
fall that by the end of November covered the 
hills. Back at Gilbert Wayne's school were 
the same boys grown a little taller and heavier. 
One of them had changed in more than appear- 
ance. From the very first lesson of the term 
Anthony Wayne had shown that he had every 
intention of carrying out his promise to his 
father. So marked was this improvement that 
before a month had gone by Isaac Wayne had 
been informed that there was no fear of his 
son's ability to learn; the boy's ambitions had 
been awakened. To remain on a farm and to 
do the physical drudgery and to undergo the 
actual hardships of the pioneer farmer, was 
something that Anthony did not care to look 
forward to. He would have jumped at the op- 

14 



THE GREAT SNOW FIGHT 

portunity to enter the Army or Navy, but very 
few of the sons of the Colonists at that time en- 
tered the service of the mother country, and of 
either Army or Navy in the proper sense the 
Colonies possessed none. Anthony was work- 
ing toward a definite ambition, for without say- 
ing anything to anybody he had chosen his pro- 
fession. There was plenty of employment for 
civil engineers, for the country was in a slow 
process of development and an engineer who 
had besides his technical skill a reputation for 
good judgment and integrity was sure of both 
honorable and remunerative employment. The 
life, also, was in the open and had in it the ele- 
ment of adventure. And this possibly influ- 
enced young Wayne as much as anything else 
in making his choice. But before he left his 
Uncle Gilbert he had a splendid opportunity 
to prove that he did, undoubtedly, possess the 
gift of leadership. 

In the middle of the winter the only other 
school in Chester was disbanded on account of 
the sudden death of the schoolmaster. And Gil- 
bert Wayne found the numbers of his scholars 

15 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

exactly doubled. He was forced to take on an 
assistant to aid him in his teaching. 

The new boys, of course, held together and 
brought with them the reflex of their previous 
companionship. Gilbert's scholars, of which 
young Wayne was now the leader, naturally 
held together also, and the result was many 
clashes; even the discipline of the classroom 
hardly prevented them at the outset from show- 
ing this feeling of antagonism. In front of 
the old schoolhouse the boys had built a large 
snow fort, and on coming to school one morn- 
ing, the followers of the Gray Fox discovered 
that by some preconcerted arrangement the new 
boys held possession. They had laid in a large 
supply of snowballs soaked well in water, and 
hard as ice could freeze. Every attempt of the 
late comers to approach the school was with 
volleys of these missiles. When Anthony 
Wayne arrived he found his companions hold- 
ing back at the edge of the little clearing. 
Quickly he surveyed the field, and retiring out 
of sight into the pine trees, laid out his plan 
of battle. There was a slight hill behind the 

16 




^^V)\'^^^ 



"The great snow fiojit. 



THE GREAT SNOW FIGHT 

schoolhouse and half way up a shed containing 
an old ox sleigh. A brilliant idea had crossed 
the young leader's mind. Dividing his forces, 
he directed Iddings to lead five boys by a cir- 
cuitous route over the top of the hill and take 
possession of the ox wagon. It was his inten- 
tion that they should come coasting down upon 
the rear of the snow fort, while Anthony and 
his little handful kept up a constant bombard- 
ment from the front, and thus claim the enemy's 
attention. It required some courage to face the 
hard frozen ice balls while replying merely with 
those made of the soft new-packed snow. Nev- 
ertheless, despite ' bruises, and in fact, much 
bodily discomfort, the attacking party held 
their ground. 

Suddenly, there was a shout; down the hill 
came the ox wagon, steered by Iddings, and with 
such impetus did it strike the snow fort that 
it plowed through the wall, and for an instant 
it appeared to the astonished schoolmaster as 
if there would be real casualties instead of only 
a few bruised elbows and blackened eyes. As 
the ox wagon struck the rampart, Anthony led 

17 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Ms own men forward and tlie battle was now 
one of actual conflict with hands and fists. It 
was interrupted by the appearance of Gilbert 
Wayne and his assistant, who had some work 
to tear the antagonists apart. 

Being a man of peace, as he claimed, Gilbert 
Wayne was also a man of justice, and although 
he formally declared the action a draw, he sub- 
sequently drew Anthony to one side and gave 
him a private decision that undoubtedly if they 
had been left to fight it out his own old boys 
would have proved the victors. 

Perhaps this little burst of confidence brought 
the schoolmaster and his pupil closer together 
than before. But it could not have been that 
newly awakened friendship that stirred Anthony 
entirely. Back in his mind was his promise to 
his father and a growing determination to put 
into his hand a letter that would entirely erase 
the one which his father had given him, some 
months before. 

So well did he hold to this idea and so faith- 
fully did he keep to his tasks that at the end 
of that school year he had made such progress 

18 



THE GREAT SNOW FIGHT 

that Gilbert Wayne wrote the following letter 
to his brother Isaac : 

** Anthony has so greatly improved in his 
attention to duty, his scholarship and deport- 
ment, that I cannot speak of him in too high 
praise. His advancement has been so rapid 
during the past year that he has learned all 
that I can teach him, and I recommend that he 
be sent to an Academy where he may follow 
any natural bent he may possess." 

This letter, which was the second one of its 
character that Gilbert Wayne had written, An- 
thony handed to his father in the little front 
office of the old stone house. And then and 
there he told of his ambition to take up the call- 
ing of a surveyor aud civil engineer. At the 
Philadelphia Academy, to which he was sent, 
Anthony kept up the good record, and at the 
early age of eighteen was fully competent to 
take up the work of setting boundary lines, 
running levels, and the use of the surveyor's 
compass. Plenty of opportunity came to him 
— ^he was always accurate and always just. His 
figures aad his maps might have been worked 

19 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

out and made by a man of many years' experi- 
ence. In 1765, when only twenty years of age, 
he was selected by tbe directors of a company 
that bad on its lists many of the best known 
names in Pennsylvania, including, by tbe way, 
that of Benjamin Franklin, to go to Nova Scotia 
and to survey a large grant of land that had 
been given the company by the Crown, and 
upon which it was proposed to found a large 
settlement and farming community. He was 
absent quite a year and his maps and reports 
were spoken of as models of good workmanship, 
while his advice and judgment were listened 
to by his elders and followed out to the letter. 
He was now established and completely inde- 
pendent and, as was the way of young men in 
those days who were self-supporting, he looked 
for someone else to support also. And as soon 
as he came of age, in 1766, he hied himself to 
Philadelphia, and after a swift and victorious 
campaign so completely won the affections of 
the beautiful daughter of Bartholomew Pen- 
rose, that she capitulated after a siege of seven 
days and was married also in what was then 

20 



THE GREAT SNOW FIGHT 

almost record time. But Anthony Wayne was 
one of those impetuous spirits with whom de- 
cision spelt action, and as he had begun to take 
himself very seriously, and his whole life was 
filled with serious things and problems of great 
moment, not only to himself but to his country, 
it is time perhaps that we take up his life more 
seriously, also. No man, perhaps, has been 
more misjudged than the hero of Stony Point. 
The nickname of '^Mad Anthony'' hardly de- 
scribes him, although it has been taken by 
many casual readers of history to describe his 
character. 



CHAPTER ni 

THE PRELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

IN the spring of 1774 Anthony Wayne had 
already been a farmer and surveyor for 
eight years. At Waynesboro, in the County of 
Chester, he owned and cultivated an extensive 
and well-ordered farm, as well as a large tan- 
nery. These were callings at which a man could 
become wealthy in those days, and undoubtedly 
young Wayne enjoyed his full share of such 
prosperity as his contemporaries called wealth. 
He was, moreover, considered the most capable 
surveyor in his region — the fame gained during 
his brief experience in Nova Scotia still en- 
dured, and had gained him a wide acquaintance ; 
his decisions in boundary disputes among his 
neighbors were accepted as finalities. In addi- 
tion to all these favorable conditions, Wayne 
was also better educated and possessed of a 
wider knowledge and experience of life than 

22 



THE PEELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

his immediate associates. He was endowed, 
moreover, with a peculiarly attractive person- 
ality that endeared him to all and valuably as- 
sisted his leadership in all public and com- 
munity activities. Hence, it is not remark- 
able that we learn that he was widely regarded 
as the proper man to head any general move- 
ment among the people : he was evidently bom 
to be a general — a fact early recognized by his 
schoolmaster uncle. 

With all these advantages, it is to be ex- 
pected, perhaps, that he might display some of 
the weaknesses common to humanity. We learn, 
accordingly, that he was somewhat vain in his 
manner, rather extravagant in his dress, and 
often given to boasting and to large assump- 
tions. When we meet a man addicted to habits 
such as these we suppose, usually, that he is 
more capable in talking than in doing. With 
Wayne, however, as with some of the other 
famous men of history, it would seem that the 
high talk he indulged in indicated merely a cre- 
ative imagination and that opportunities for 
action were wanting. So it was that among his 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

neighbors his boastful speech was taken quite 
seriously. In fact, people seemed always to 
have taken him **at his own estimate of him- 
self. ' ' Nor, as subsequent events amply proved, 
were they at all in error. 

The coveted opportunity for action that the 
boy leader had so often dreamed of came at 
last in the exciting times just before the out- 
break of the American Revolution. It was then 
that his ability to do came to be fully demon- 
strated. He was literally the leader among his 
fellows in every movement for the defense of 
the colonies against the hasty and ill-advised 
usurpations of the British Ministry, and, it is 
gratifying to record, he was a wise leader also. 
We have learned to call him '^mad" Anthony 
Wayne, but his * 'madness" was not the obses- 
sion of the wanton agitator, even against aggra- 
vated abuses. Although determined in his 
opposition to the measures of Government to 
take away the autonomy of the colonies, he 
was to a very late date inspired with the hope 
that the matters in dispute might yet be settled, 
and the Americans reconciled with the Mother 

24 



THE PRELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

Country. Thus, in September, 1775, as Chair- 
man of the Chester County Committee of Safe- 
ty, he wrote : 

** Whereas, some persons evidently inimical 
to the Hberty of America have industriously 
propagated a report that the military associa- 
tors of this County, in conjunction with the mili- 
tary associators in general, intend to overturn 
the Constitution by declaring aa independency 
. . . and as such report could not originate but 
among the worst of men for the worst of pur- 
poses, this Committee have thought proper to 
declare, and they do hereby declare, their ab- 
horrence even of an idea so pernicious in its 
nature, as they ardently wish for nothing more 
than a happy and speedy reconciliation on con- 
stitutional principles with that State from whom 
they derive their origin." 

Nevertheless, about a year before the date of 
this declaration, above quoted, Anthony Wayne 
had signed another which emphatically asserted 
the ** right of every English subject to the en- 
joyment and disposal of his property," of which 
no power on earth could legally divest him, and 

25 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

that ^Hhe attempted invasion of that right was 
a grievance which should be redressed by con- 
stitutional means. ' ' From these expressions we 
may understand that Wayne was in hearty 
agreement with most of the wisest leaders of 
the colonists. Independence, the founding of 
a new nation, separate from England, was an 
after-thought with nearly all of them, an *' evo- 
lution,'' as we would say today. The real 
grounds of contention were the attempts to ab- 
rogate the rights of self-government — placing 
all the colonies under the direct administration 
of the Crown and its ministers — and the making 
of laws for the colonists in which they had 
had no representation, in fact in regard to 
which they had not even been consulted. The 
succession of governmental blunders looking 
toward these ends was what made the taxation 
of tea, paper, etc., so odious to all Americans, 
especially to the people of Boston and vicinity, 
and was the occasion of the familiar slogan 
of the times, ** Taxation without representation 
is tyranny." This latter sentence was orig- 
inated, probably, in the expressions used by 

26 



THE PEELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

John Adams, when defending John Hancock 
on the charge of smuggling wine in 1770, but, 
even with Adams and Hancock, no greater con- 
sequences were expected to their protest than 
the granting of the right of representation in 
making the laws for their own government if 
not for their separate government. 

Such, however, was the attitude of the King 
and his ministers at this period that the rep- 
resentations of the colonists were treated with 
contempt. The unwise zeal of such men as 
Governor Edmund Andros, and others, had con- 
firmed the opinion in England that the Ameri- 
cans were essentially rebellious and turbulent; 
and, consequently, that they were to be curbed 
by severe measures only. As the logical cul- 
mination to the strained relations so long exist- 
ing between the Mother Country and her colo- 
nies, the incensed Bostonians plotted together 
and committed the depredation known as the 
^* Boston tea party," in which a whole ship's 
cargo of tea was thrown overboard, because of 
the odious import tax. At once their city was 
placed under martial law. Violence now was 

27 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

requited with more violence, and in every case 
it begat its own kind; the dispute grew daily- 
more aggravated. Even in such colonies as 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, where, as yet, the 
valued institutions of the people had not been 
interfered with, the conviction gained ground 
steadily that only an armed opposition could 
convince the Crown that the Americans were 
determined to maintain their liberties under 
their charters. The raising and equipping of 
military companies in all the colonies seemed at 
the time merely a measure of ** preparedness" 
— a word that every American should know by 
this time and take to heart. 

Among the most prominent leaders in Penn- 
sylvania against the prevailing acts of the Brit- 
ish Ministry was Anthony Wayne himself. In 
July, 1774, he was Chairman of the County 
Committee that adopted resolutions condemn- 
ing all these acts of oppression. In January, 
1775, he was a delegate to the Provincial Con- 
vention of Pennsylvania, which took measures 
to encourage home industries and manufactures, 
in opposition to the taxed imports from other 

28 



THE PRELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

countries. In the following May he originated 
a proposition that the * 'freemen" of Chester 
organize for military defense; later in the same 
year he served on the County Committees of 
Safety and Correspondence, and in December 
he was nominated for the Provincial Assembly 
from his County. In the meantime, also, he 
was busily engaged in recruiting a regiment- 
it was known as the Fourth Pennsylvania Bat- 
talion—and in January, 1776, attired in a re- 
splendent uniform, he was commissioned its 
colonel. 

With his elevation to the colonelcy of this 
** battalion," Wayne attained at last to the kind 
of position for which his instincts, abilities, and 
much of his previous study had amply qualified 
him. Even in the midst of his engrossing en- 
gagements at farming, tanning and assisting 
in the government and public affairs of his 
county and province, he had followed out his 
boyhood bent and had always been an eager 
student of military science and strategy. This 
is shown by his frequent references in after-life 
to such books as ** Marshal Saxe's Campaigns," 

29 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

and *' Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic 
War." And the idea of military essentials 
which he seems to have derived from his studies 
may be judged by the fact that he early showed 
marked tendencies to become a ** martinet," or 
stickler for form and discipline. He required 
that each company of his command should have 
its own barber, and that the men should be 
carefully shaved, and have their hair plaited 
and powdered. He announced, moreover, that 
he would severely punish ** every man who 
comes on parade with a long beard, slovenly 
dressed or dirty." In a letter to Washington, 
justly famous for its frankness, he says: 

*^I have an insuperable bias in favor of an 
elegant uniform and soldierly appearance, so 
much so that I would risk my life and reputa- 
tion at the head of the same men in an attack, 
clothed and appointed as I could wish, merely 
with bayonets and a single charge of ammuni- 
tion, than to take them as they appear in com- 
mon with sixty rounds of cartridges. It may be 
a false idea, but I cannot help cherishing it." 

It might seem to some readers that all such 
30 



THE PEELUDE TO GREAT DEEDS 

matters are too trivial to occupy the attention 
of a commander of troops, whose business is, 
first place, **to do and to die," if, indeed, dying 
comes in the line of duty. But one must not for- 
get that, just as in any mechanical device pro- 
duced by human ingenuity, derangement in a 
small part may finally grow into a large de- 
rangement in the whole machine ; so, in an or- 
ganization of people, in an army or even in a 
deliberative assembly, all rules and regulations 
that promote uniformity of action and coopera- 
tion are valuable and necessary. Experience 
teaches us also that nothing so promotes the 
efficiency of a corps of soldiers as strict disci- 
pline in such small matters, as we might regard 
them, as those of personal appearance and be- 
havior. We see, therefore, that Wayne showed 
the instincts of a real commander in his in- 
sistence on such matters, rather than the mere 
desire to make a fine showing on parade. The 
performance of his men in action throughout 
the war amply demonstrated the wisdom of his 
scheme of discipline. 



31 



CHAPTEE IV 

COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS EIYIERES 

IT was at the battle of Trois Eivieres, or 
Three Rivers, in Canada, that Colonel 
Wayne and his gallant command were for the 
first time under fire. The result of this engage- 
ment was a defeat, a defeat by no means inglo- 
rious, although, as one historian remarks, in 
referring to this early American reverse, they 
'4ost almost everything belonging to them save 
their hair and their beards!" It was a sad 
blow to the members of the regiment upon whom 
their Colonel had expended so much care and 
solicitude. It was the disastrous end of an 
ill-conceived expedition, the attempted invasion 
of Canada in 1776 with the object of enlisting 
the sympathies and cooperation of the recently 
conquered French colonists in the common re- 
sistance to the British Crown. The unsuccess- 
ful assault on the stronghold of Quebec was the 

32 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

culmmation of the failure, from which the 
American forces under Generals Montgomery 
and Arnold were compelled to make a hurried 
and disorderly retreat. 

According to the judgment of most of the 
American leaders at the time, the sympathies 
of the French Canadians should have been 
easily obtained. By race and traditions alike 
they should have been more than willing to 
throw off the British yoke for the prospects of 
self-government. But as it happened, the 
policy of the Crown toward these new acces- 
sions to the British dominions had been a wise 
and eminently acceptable one. Probably be- 
cause the main prerogative claimed by the 
King, direct government by the Crown through 
a royal governor, and without representative 
legislation, had already been established, it 
seemed possible to allow the concessions that 
the old French law should still hold in all ad- 
ministrative matters, especially land tenures, 
that the posts of greatest honor should be re- 
served, as formerly, for representatives of the 
French aristocracy, and, most valuable of all, 

33 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

that the Catholic Church should be guaranteed 
in the possession of its vast estates. This latter 
provision insured the influence of the priest- 
hood for the British, on the ground, apparently, 
that, since the influence and position of the 
Church were thus secured by law, the welfare of 
the people was certain to be established. Nor 
could the influence of even so distinguished a 
clergyman as the Rev. John Carroll, subse- 
quently Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore, avail 
to change the attitude of his coreligionists in 
Canada. Undoubtedly, the Catholic priesthood 
and hierarchy of the province knew perfectly 
well that, in the event of their joining, and if 
the American cause were overthrown, the first 
movement of reprisal by the nominally Protes- 
tant State of Great Britain would be the confis- 
cation of all Church holdings. Consequently, 
the mighty influence of religion was enlisted in 
support of the existing order, as against all the 
inducements offered by the American colonists 
and their predominantly Protestant Congress, 
The French Canadians assisted effectively in 
the defeat of the attempted invasion. 

34 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

Colonel Wayne's command was attached to 
the Pennsylvania Brigade commanded by Gen- 
eral William Thompson, which, in addition to 
the Fourth Battalion, consisted of the Second 
Battalion, under Colonel Arthur St. Clair, and 
of the Sixth, under Colonel William Irvine. 
This force had been sent forward to assist the 
American army already in Canada, and started 
from home, undoubttdly, in high hopes of par- 
ticipating in a glorious and apparently certain 
conquest. Wayne's command, which had been 
variously delayed by the necessity of securing 
proper arms and equipment, reached a point 
known as Fort Sorel, midway between Montreal 
and Quebec, on June 5, 1776, and there joined 
the retreating remnant of General Montgom- 
ery's army, together with the other com- 
mands belonging to Thompson's Brigade, under 
the command of General John Sullivan. Imme- 
diately after their arrival, Wayne's men, to- 
gether with the other Pennsylvanians, were 
ordered by Sullivan to attack the British force 
under General Burgoyne, then stationed at 
Trois Rivieres, some fifty miles down the river. 

35 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

The precise advantages to be gained by making 
tMs attack are not very evident, but the Penn- 
sylvanians responded cheerfully to the call of 
duty, and went forth eagerly to their baptism of 
fire. 

The force sent to the attack on Trois Rivieres 
was 1,400 strong, all from Pennsylvania, ex- 
cept the small New Jersey Battalion, under Col- 
onel William Maxwell. They came down the St. 
Lawrence River in boats, landing at a point nine 
miles above the town in which the British were 
quartered, at about two o 'clock on the morning 
of June 9. The plan was to march forward, 
and to surprise Burgoyne's men about dawn, 
a daring plan in which, in all probability, the 
Americans would have been victorious. As it 
happened, however, they were misled on the 
road, came in sight of the enemy's outposts 
about 3 o'clock, and were compelled to make 
their further progress through a thick and deep 
swamp, in which marching was both slow and 
painful. After four weary hours of dark and 
dismal floundering, the brave Americans 
emerged upon an open expanse of solid ground 

36 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

where they were met by a large and well-formed 
detachment of British regulars. Although the 
Pennsylvanians were aided by the fact that 
they were proceeding through a wood, which, as 
Wayne himself relates, was * ' so deep and thick 
with timber and underwood that a man ten 
yards in front or rear would not see the men 
drawn up," they were also seriously disadvan- 
taged in not being able to see other portions 
of their own force, and in being unable to form 
before reaching the open. In this difficulty 
Wayne's genius for generalship under condi- 
tions of actual warfare was first manifested — a 
man learned in the theory of strategy, a reader 
of books about the world's great military 
achievements, he proved to be a real general 
prepared to command! Sending for Captain 
Samuel Hay, he gave the brief order: 

**Take you, sir, your company of riflemen, 
and a detachment of the light infantry of the 
Fourth Battalion, and advance carefully 
through the thicket, keeping the enemy under 
fire." 

Having created this diversion, which, as he 
37 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

stated later, was intended merely to ** amuse" 
the enemy, lie succeeded in forming the re- 
mainder of his men in good order, prepared to 
advance. The British, receiving the fire of 
Hay's men, moved forward in their direction, 
which was precisely the result anticipated by 
Wayne himself. He then moved his own men to 
meet the oncoming enemy, and issued his com- 
mand to Hay to separate his force into two 
companies, one on either wing of the American 
line, and attempt a double flank movement, ex- 
posing the British to fire from three directions. 
This move was highly successful, as far as it 
was effective, for the British line was broken, 
and the men fled in disorder to their own camp. 
The Americans followed them up to the breast- 
works of their fortifications, in the face of a 
galling fire from musketry, field pieces and 
howitzers. All of the colonial forces now 
rushed on to follow up their advantage, includ- 
ing those under the command of Colonel Wil- 
liam Maxwell, who had wandered far to the 
left of the other American forces in a dense 
thicket in the midst of the swamp. The show- 

38 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

ing made by all, who advanced with a bravery 
notable in men under fire for the first time, 
served well to impress the enemy, and to per- 
suade them to remain within their own earth- 
works. 

Finally, however, the combined fire of the 
naval vessels on the river and land forces of 
the British became too intense, and left no al- 
ternative but retreat. At the close of the ac- 
tion in the open, Wayne was left on the field 
with only twenty men and five officers, imper- 
turbably directing* the retreat, and retiring only 
when all were safely in the cover of the swamp. 
Even after he also had retired, he remained 
behind the main body of his troops to direct an 
incessant small fire, intended to keep the enemy 
within their own lines, and to cover the retreat. 
After about one hour he withdrew also, follow- 
ing a road to the point at which the party had 
entered the swamp in the morning, collecting 
in the course of the march about 700 stragglers, 
whom he quickly formed into order, continuing 
the march without further difficulty than that 
which comes from lack of all provisions. 

39 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

About nine miles from tlie scene of battle a 
detachment of the enemy, about 1,500 strong, 
waylaid tbe Americans, and attempted to cut 
them off, but, separated as they were from 
tbeir ships and great guns, they were able to 
do little damage. Three days later, a weary 
band of 1,100 men, who had suffered from all 
sorts of hardships, including hunger and lack 
of sleep, reached the American camp at Fort 
Sorel. They had lost 300 of their number, in- 
cluding General Thompson and Colonel Irvine, 
who were taken prisoners, and Colonel St. Clair, 
who wandered into camp alone several hours 
later. 

The net result of the gallant attack on Trois 
Rivieres was to discourage the British forces 
from following the Americans further, thus, as 
Wayne records, availing to save the army in 
Canada. Nor did he hesitate to claim such credit 
as belonged of right to his able efforts ; remark- 
ing in a letter written to Dr. Franklin, **I be- 
lieve that it will be universally allowed that Col. 
Allen and myself have saved the army.'' Nor 
was this service either needless or ill-timed. In 

40 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

the words of General James Wilkinson, who had 
been dispatched by Arnold to solicit aid in the 
retreat of his own forces, every house and hut 
on the route was *^ crowded with straggling men 
without officers, and officers without men." All 
were suffering from privations, and many were 
sick and wounded. Finally, as Wilkinson re- 
cords, he met with Lieutenant- Colonel William 
Allen — ^he who seceded from the Americans- 
after the Declaration of Independence — to 
whom he communicated his orders for a detach- 
ment. ^* Wilkinson/^ said Allen, **this army 
is conquered by its fears, and I doubt whether 
you can draw any assistance from it; but Col- 
onel Wayne is in the rear, and if anyone can do 
it he is the man. ' ' 

Wilkinson's meeting with Wayne was a 
memorable scene. *^I met that gallant officer," 
he writes, *^as much at his ease as if he was 
marching on a parade of exercise." No trace 
of fear or excitement was to be seen in the face 
or carriage of this hero, who had shown the 
courage of a seasoned warrior in his first ex- 
perience of real fighting. He was '*to the man- 

41 



THE HEEO OF STONY POINT 

ner bom," apparently, just as if there were 
truth in the old teaching that we are reborn into 
the world after death, and he had already, as 
he had dreamed of a former life, led his legions 
to victory and glory on a hundred fields of bat- 
tle. On hearing "Wilkinson's demand for men 
to assist Arnold in his extremity, Wayne acted 
promptly. Stationing a guard at the bridge he 
himself had just crossed, he gave orders to stop 
every man who seemed alert and capable of 
further immediate service, and quickly recruited 
a detachment sufficient for all needs. *'Then," 
says Wilkinson, *Hhe very men who only the 
day before were retreating in confusion before 
a division of the enemy now marched with alac- 
rity against his main body." 

Fortunately, in spite of his fears, Arnold 
had, meantime, succeeded in making good his 
escape from the trap into which the British 
commander had sought to draw him. Wayne 
missed, therefore, another immediate oppor- 
tunity to achieve distinction under fire, and 
was obliged to return to rejoin General Sullivan 
at Fort Sorel. On the way back an event oc- 

42 



COLONEL WAYNE AT TROIS RIVIERES 

curred that served to show the character of the 
man in a new light. When about two miles 
from the American camp, the detachment under 
Wayne's command was sighted by Sullivan's 
men, as it slowly made its way along the oppo- 
site bank of the Sorel River, and was mistaken 
for a hostile force. Wayne himself, in full sight 
of the American camp, viewed their hurried 
preparations for an attack with both amusement 
and surprise. He is reported to have remarked 
briefly : 

* * They should have been better prepared for 
an attack. Then, had we been friends or foes, 
our welcome would have been equally as 
warm." 

In the retreat of the army from Canada, 
Colonel Wayne commanded the Pennsylvania 
regiments as the ranking officer — General 
Thompson and Colonel Irvine having been made 
prisoners, and Colonel St. Clair having been 
seriously wounded. Wayne himself had not 
escaped unhurt, for he had received a gun-shot 
wound at Trois Rivieres — he described it to 
Franklin as **a slight touch in my right leg'' — 

43 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

but lie allowed himself no rest from his duties, 
and by bis strict discipline actually trans- 
formed the straggling and disheartened crowd 
of his soldiers into an orderly and compacted 
fighting force. It was in this period, curiously 
enough, that he made his famous statement pre- 
viously quoted, that he '* would expect his offi- 
cers to enforce regulations about personal 
cleanliness and neatness of attire,*' adding that 
he considered it their duty ^'to see that their 
men always appear washed, shaved, their hair 
plaited and powdered, and their arms in good 
order. ' ' Yet this was the man to whom much of 
the credit is due for leading the Almerican 
forces safely out of the clutches of Burgoyne 
to the safe haven of Fort Ticonderoga. 



CHAPTER V 

ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

THE return of the American army from 
Canada found Anthony Wajme already 
famous as a capable commander and resourceful 
strategist. As we have already learned, the 
battle of Trios Eivieres had left him the rank- 
ing officer of the Pennsylvania troops, with the 
duty of leading them to a safe retreat at Fort 
Ticonderoga. The enemy's forces followed the 
little army — not closely, but at a safe distance. 
Instead of attempting a general engagement, 
which might have resulted injuriously to the 
Americans, they contented themselves with oc- 
casional skirmishes. But now followed the bat- 
tle of Lake Champlain, in which Arnold's fleet 
was destroyed. The British, however, were con- 
tent merely to threaten an attack on Ticon- 
deroga, and then withdrew until the following 
season. In these days of titanic modern war- 

45 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

fare, involving the engagement of hundreds of 
thousands of men, it seems a small matter in- 
deed, the maneuvering or counter-maneuvering 
of a few regiments on either side. But war was 
a different game in those days, and important 
issues hung upon the outcome of a single small 
engagement. Both sides were uncertain, also, 
as to the real effective strength of their antag- 
onists, and were naturally unwilling to risk ac- 
tions that might result in disastrous defeat. 
The confidence of the Americans, however, is 
well expressed by Colonel Wayne himself, when 
he wrote to his wife under date January 3, 
1777, *^The British Rebels may be successful 
for a time ; they may take and destroy our towns 
near the water and distress us much, but they 
never can, they never will, subjugate the free- 
bom sons of America. Our growing country 
can meet with considerable losses and survive 
them ; but one defeat for our more than savage 
enemies ruins them forever." 

For nearly a year Wayne was stationed at 
Ticonderoga, then, according to general opin- 
ion, the second most important post in the whole 

46 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

of the colonial territory. On November 18, 
1776, he was appointed by General Schuyler 
commandant of the fort and its dependencies, 
and so continued until the following April 
twelftli. The responsibilities of his new com- 
mand, having to do with the strengthening of 
the extensive fortifications, and the discipline of 
a force of men varying between 2,500 and 7,000, 
who were frequently discontented with their 
conditions and occasionally were mutinous, 
fully occupied his attention. He was restive, 
however, at the continued lack of opportunity 
for real fighting and apparently exerted every 
means at his disposal to obtain a transference, 
if possible to Washington's army, which was 
during this same period passing through ex- 
citing adventures. The place also evidently 
sorely depressed his spirits, as may be judged 
from a remark in one of his letters : 

^'It [the country about Ticonderoga] appears 
to be the last part of the world that God made, 
and I have some ground to believe it was fin- 
ished in the dark. That it was never intended 
that man should live in it is clear, for the peo- 

47 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

pie who attempted to make any stay have for 
the most part perished by pestilence or the 
sword. . . . The soldiers make tent pins of the 
shin and thigh hones of Abercrombie's men." 
With all his earnest longing after more ac- 
tion, and his constant solicitation that he be 
transferred, it is gratifying to record that he 
wasted no time — ^that he seemed inspired with 
the ambition to discharge the duties of even an 
unacceptable post with the utmost care and at- 
tention. The men were frequently short on ra- 
tions, were ill-equipped, were suffering con- 
stantly from the inroads of epidemic disease, 
and the commander exerted himself to the ut- 
most to supply their needs — ^now writing long 
and insistent letters to his superiors, both in 
army and government positions, now sending 
requisitions to the neighboring colonies of Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut for both men and 
supplies. As the result, undoubtedly, of his 
rigid discipline, the Pennsylvania troops won 
great distinction, although, in the words of 
Colonel Francis Johnston, the ^^Pennsylvanians 
were originally designed for soldiers," possess- 

48 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

ing a degree of ** vigilance, assiduity and res- 
ignation to bad usage, fatigue and the strictest 
discipline. ' ' 

The grand qualities of the Pennsylvania 
troops, be they original or from consistent dis- 
cipline, found eminent illustration during the 
fighting following the defeat of the American 
fleet on Lake Champlain. The news of this dis- 
aster reached the camp at Lake George where 
several hundred Pennsylvanians were confined 
in the hospital, ^^ emaciated with disease and 
sickness of the most malignant kind. ' ' But, even 
while many of the troops were eagerly hoping 
for the day of their discharge — others speaking 
and behaving mutinously, because compelled 
to remain after the expiration of their term of 
service, until reenf or cements should arrive — the 
invalids and *' incapacitated" rose to a man, it 
is related, and '* fixed on their military ac- 
couterments.'' Then, entirely without orders 
or compulsion, they marched to the scene of 
conflict, determined to conquer or die with their 
countrymen. **As two privates of the First 
Battalion commanded by Colonel De Haas 

49 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

passed through our encampment," writes Col- 
onel Johnston, *'they were asked if no more of 
the Pennsylvanians were coming, to which they 
answered with indignation, ^Yes, confound you, 
every sick man amongst us that could possibly 
crawl; but we led the van from our rank.' " 
Some of these same men had even received their 
discharges, and had been kept at the hospital 
merely because, in the judgment of their offi- 
cers and advisors, they were incapable of mak- 
ing the journey home. Yet these men, as John- 
ston relates, came ^* swearing by everything 
sacred that they would have ample revenge ! ' ' 
Prom his meager defensive force of not 
**more than 6,000 effective men, of which some- 
thing less than one-half, i. e., about 2,600, will 
bear the brunt of the day, the remainder being 
on Mount Independence on the opposite side 
of the Lake," Wayne speaks proudly in one 
of his letters of his own Pennsylvania contin- 
gent. **I thank my God," he remarks, **we are 
left partly alone. I have yet 1,500 hardy vet- 
erans from Pennsylvania; would to Heaven I 
could for a day lead them to the assistance of 

50 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

poor Washington. I would risk my soul that 
they would sell their lives, or liberties, at too 
dear a rate for Britons to make purchases." 
In another letter to General Schuyler he speaks 
of the approaching discharge of a part of this 
force, not without the same pride as of old, and 
with perfect confidence in their consistent in- 
tention to serve the cause of independence to 
the end of the war. *^I have," he writes, 
** ordered one regiment of the Pennsylvania to 
march tomorrow [January 23, 1777]. The 
others will follow as soon as possible with 
orders to proceed in good order to Philadelphia. 
I have lately received letters from General St. 
Clair and other gentlemen in General Washing- 
ton's camp which made me think it advisable 
to keep these regiments embodied until they are 
dismissed by the board of war. Their time 
expired the 5th of this instant: they will be 
settled with in Philadelphia agreeable to prom- 
ise, when I have reason to expect the greatest 
part will reengage." 

Speaking of these same troops some time pre- 
vious, Wayne remarked: ** 'Liberty to come 

51 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

down for one month when relieved' carries with 
it an idea of being immediately sent back to a 
place [Ticonderoga] which they imagine is 
very unhealthy. They say, * March us off this 
ground and then we will cheerfully reengage/ 
Added to this, their anxiety about their friends 
in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania makes them 
impatient to be led to the assistance of their dis- 
tressed home country. They likewise see the 
eastern people running away in the clouds of 
the night, some before and all soon as their 
times expire. Colonel Whitcomb's regiment, 
all the sailors and mariners, the whole of the 
artificers, and all the corps of artillery, except 
Captain Roman's company, which consists of 
but twelve men, officers included, are gone off 
the ground." 

Wayne, as it seems, was incapable of under- 
standing the motives behind such doings. Home 
and family were as dear to him as to any of 
those who, as he complains, deserted, or made 
a precipitous departure. But, with him, the 
sentiment of patriotism and the soldier's honor 
were altogether too high and valuable for any 

52 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

kind of compromise. To deserters he frequently 
applied the then highly opprobrious term ^'cai- 
tiff/' which we also might consider insulting, 
had we not quite forgotten its use and meaning. 
His firm and decisive treatment of mutinous 
and insubordinate soldiers is exampled in the 
following account embodied in one of his letters : 
''Yesterday morning [February 11, 1777], at 
gun fire, I was informed that Captain Nelson's 
rifle company— who used to do duty in my regi- 
ment—were under arms with their packs slung 
ready to march, and determined to force their 
way through all opposition. On my arrival at 
their encampment I found them drawn up in 
order and beginning their march. On asking 
the cause of such conduct, they began in a 
tumultuous manner to inform me that the time 
of their enlistment was expired last month, and 
that they looked upon themselves as at liberty 
to go home. I ordered them to halt— that I 
could not answer them all at once. I directed 
their leader to step out and speak for them. A 
sergeant advanced. I presented a pistol to his 
breast. He fell on his knees to beg his life. I 

53 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

then ordered the whole to ground their arms, 
which was immediately complied with. I then 
addressed them, when they with one voice 
agreed to remain nntn the 20th instant and re- 
turn to their duty. This was scarce over when 
a certain Jonah Holida of Captain Coe's com- 
pany in Colonel Robinson's regiment en- 
deavored to excite them to mutiny again. . . . 
I thought proper to chastise him for his in- 
solence on the spot before the men, and then 
sent him to answer for his crime to the main 
guard. 

*^The colonel waited on me and very inno- 
cently informed me that he had a complaint 
lodged against me, that he was very sorry for 
it, but was obliged to take notice of it, and then 
delivered the within paper. On inquiring I found 
it was wrote by Captain Coe. I had him brought 
before me. He acknowledged the writing, and 
also that he knew the cause for which the soldier 
was struck and confined, but was of the opinion 
that every soldier had a right to deliver his 
sentiments on every occasion without being 
punished, upon which I orderd him in arrest 

54 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

as an abettor of the mutiny. I wait for your 
orders to send them down to Albany, where you 
will take such further measures as you may 
deem necessary.'' 

There was probably considerable reason for 
the dissatisfaction expressed by both Wayne 
and his men, who were practically marooned in 
a lonely and unhealthful spot, with no chance 
of real fighting, except with hunger, discomfort, 
privation and disease, and compelled to con- 
stantly urge the authorities to supply the mer- 
est necessities of life — food, clothing, ammuni- 
tion and medicines. All such conditions are 
confidently ascribed by historians to the famil- 
iar evils, politics and incompetence in high of- 
fices. So strong, indeed, was the sentiment 
that ** polities'' even then ruled the administra- 
tion of government, that, strange as it may seem 
at the present day, even the adoption of the 
Declaration of Independence was viewed with- 
out enthusiasm in many quarters, as a mere 
** party triumph." 

On February 21, 1777, Colonel Wayne was 
advanced to the rank of brigadier general, and, 

55 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

in spite if Ms tireless loyalty and efficient ser- 
vice to the cause of freedom, was advanced to 
no higher rank during the whole period of the 
war. It was not, in fact, until October, 1783, 
that he was advanced by Congress to the major- 
generalship, and then only by brevet. Just as 
he had discharged a brigadier's duties at Ti- 
conderoga, with only the rank and pay of a 
colonel, so during the remainder of his service, 
to nearly the end of the war, he did the work of 
a major-general on the pay and with the rank 
of a brigadier. We might strongly suspect that 
** politics" had had an influence in shaping 
public policy in regard to him. Yet he never 
complained on this score. He was anxious only 
to get more action, to lead his troops to victory 
against a cruel and revengeful enemy ; and with 
this end attained at last, he seems to have been 
actually content. In a letter to General Schuy- 
ler early in 1777 he refers to the reverses in 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and adds that 
the '* alarming situation . . . causes us most 
ardently to wish for an opportunity of meeting 
those sons of war and rapine, face to face and 

56 



ANTHONY WAYNE ASKS FOR ACTION 

man to man." Wlien some of his troops began 
to be impatient at the delay in securing their 
discharges, he wrote, **I want to go also. It 
would be in my power to do more with them in 
case of necessity than perhaps any other offi- 
cer: I kaow these worthy fellows well, and 
they know me. I am confident they would not 
desert me in time of danger. If you think it 
would be for the benefit of the service, I 
should be glad to be immediately relieved in 
command with orders to march with the last of 
the southern troops.'' 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

THE day of Anthony Wayne's deliverance 
came at last. On April 12, 1777, he was 
directed by "Washington to report for duty with 
the main body of the American army, then 
located at Morristown, New Jersey. He was 
succeeded in the command of Ticonderoga by 
General Arthur St. Clair, and on his arrival at 
Washington's camp was assigned to the com- 
mand of a division of eight regiments of the 
newly organized Pennsylvania Line. It con- 
sisted of about 1,700 men, many of whom had 
been members of the original troops from Penn- 
sylvania, and had reenlisted. He had, there- 
fore, as nearly as possible, the realization of his 
long-expressed desire to command his Penn- 
sylvania veterans in real warfare. Washing- 
ton's total command at this time consisted of 
only five divisions, or forty-three regiments, 

58 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

representing a total of about 7,300 men. So 
Wayne was given command of about one-fourth 
of the effective force in men, a distinct tribute 
to Ms reputation as a capable commander. 

As a matter of fact, the assignment of "Wayne 
to this command, composed in part of seasoned 
troops, was no accident, nor yet even a compli- 
ment to his character and abilities. He was 
deliberately chosen as the best available officer 
to handle effective forces in aa army subjected 
to unusual and trying conditions. A large part 
of Washington's command at this time was 
composed of fresh recruits, whose training 
necessarily occupied much of the time and at- 
tention of his officers. Until these men, who had 
been sent from several states south of the Hud- 
son, to take the places of those whose times of 
enlistment had expired, it was manifestly im- 
possible to give battle to the enemy in open 
field. Washington retired, therefore, to the high 
lands around Morristbwn, carefully entrench- 
ing and fortifying his positions, and maintained 
a *^ Fabian policy" of awaiting the enemy's 
movements until his raw recruits had been 

59 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

** whipped into shape." By his masterly move- 
ments in the battles of Trenton and Princeton 
he had compelled the enemy to retreat, and now 
he held the position of advantage, threatening 
to cut off Howe^s forces in any attempt to ad- 
vance on Philadelphia; also serving to protect 
the entrance to the country west of the Hudson 
Eiver, including the way to West Point, Albany 
and the hill country to the south. Howe was 
thus subjected to the constant danger of a flank 
attack in any movement he might have attempt- 
ed, either to attack Philadelphia, or to form a 
junction with General Burgoyne. 

Although Washington was in a state of con- 
stant anxiety lest his position should be as- 
saulted by a large and well-trained force of 
the enemy, being afraid that the comparatively 
unprepared condition of his own troops should 
be known to them, it is interesting to learn that 
Howe and his men were by no means as con- 
fident, nor as well informed, as might have been 
suspected. A small detachment under Gen- 
eral James Grant had, to be sure, been ad- 
vanced as far as Brunswick, with the appar- 

60 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

ent object in view of attempting to cut off the 
expected advance of General Sullivan, then at 
Princeton. But, instead of making any dem- 
onstration against the Americans, he carefully 
fortified his camp, and waited. As one his- 
torian has remarked. General Wayne seems to 
have *' entertained a most sovereign contempt 
for the enemy,'' commenting on the fact that 
^Hhey dared not face us without the cover of 
an entrenchment." In a letter to Sharp De- 
lany in June, 1777, he writes : 

' ' The enemy are all at work in fortifying their 
camp. We have fairly turned the tables on 
them, for whilst we are usefully employed in 
maneuvering they are at hard labor. Our peo- 
ple are daily gaining health, spirits and disci- 
pline—the spade and the pickaxe are throwed 
aside for the British rebels to take up. They, 
notwithstanding, affect to hold us cheap, and 
threaten to beat up our quarters, if we don't 
beat up theirs first, which is in contemplation; 
but of this in time." 

In the repulse of the British detachment at 
Brunswick and its retreat to Amboy, General 

61 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Wayne played a conspicuous part. Washing- 
ton had determined to dislodge them, and dis- 
patched the Pennsylvania troops under Wayne 
to attack them. The result was so successful 
that the British withdrew hurriedly from their 
fortified camp ^^with circumstances of shame 
and disgrace," as Wayne expresses it. An 
amusing account of this afeir is found in one 
of Wayne's letters. He writes: 

^*We offered Greneral Grant battle six times 
the other day. He as often formed, but always 
on our approach his people broke and ran, after 
firing a few volleys, which we never returned, 
being determined to let them feel the force of 
our fire, and to give them the bayonet under 
cover of the smoke. This Howe, who was to 
march through America at the head of 5,000 
men, had his coat much dirtied, his horse's head 
taken off, and himself badly bruised for having 
the presumption at the head of 700 British 
troops to face 500 Pennsylvanians.'' 

The ''deadlock'' could not endure much 
longer, however. So able a general as Howe 
must inevitably find some means of circumvent- 

62 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

ing tlie plans of his opponent and gaining Ms 
ends, without endangering his own safety in a 
flank attack, snch as he mnst have suspected 
Washington was planning to deliver to a force 
advancing in any direction. Accordingly, Howe 
solved the difficulty by determining to transport 
by sea a force sufficient to attack Philadelphia, 
and toward the end of July, 1777, withdrew his 
troops from New Jersey, and embarked them at 
Staten Island. About the same time that the 
news of this movement was received at the 
American camp, the unbelievable disaster of 
the capture of Fort Ticonderoga was also com- 
municated to them. This fort, so carefully for- 
tified by Wayne, at the expense of time, labor 
and human lives — for many men contracted dis- 
ease in the prosecution of the work — ^had one 
absurdly weak point. The fortifications were 
commanded by the heights of Mount Defiance to 
the rear, a fact pointed out by both Wayne and 
Trumbull some months before, but without suc- 
cess in persuading the authorities to provide 
for the occupation of this position. The British, 
however, were not slow to seize the advantage 

63 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

so invitingly afforded them, and when their guns 
and men were perceived there, General St. 
Clair immediately capitulated, without firing 
a shot, or attempting any resistance. They 
were well prepared for a long siege, also to 
repel assaults on their works, but not to suffer 
from the galling fire of a battery mounted on 
the heights to their rear. 

Astounding as the new complication of af- 
fairs must have seemed, Washington was equal 
to the emergency. He was convinced that he 
had nothing to fear from the forces of Bur- 
goyne in the north. Consequently his attention 
was devoted to providing to prevent the capture 
of Philadelphia. With this object in view, he 
issued these orders to General Wayne: 

* ^ The fleet having gone out of the Hook, and 
as Delaware appears to be its most probable 
destination, I desire that you will leave your 
brigade under the next in command, and pro- 
ceed to Chester County, in Pennsylvania, where 
your presence will be necessary to arrange the 
militia who are to rendezvous there. '^ 

In obedience to this order, Wayne at once 
64 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

returned to his home county, and plunged into 
the midst of the heavy work of organizing the 
militia. So quickly was the final work accom- 
plished that on August 23, about one month 
after Howe's departure from New York, the 
forces were sent to the front, marching through 
Philadelphia on the way to Wilmington. Even 
though so near to his home at this time, Wayne 
could not even visit his family, and saw them 
hut once, apparently, during the entire period. 
This may be judged from a letter written to his 
wife on August 26: 

**I am peremptorily forbid by His Excellency 
to leave the army. My case is hard. I am 
obliged to do the work of three general officers. 
But if it was not the case, as a general officer, I 
could not obtain a leave of absence. I must, 
therefore, in the most pressing manner, request 
you to meet me tomorrow evening at Naaman's 
Creek. Pray bring Mr. Eobinson, with my lit- 
tle son and daughter." 

About three days after the writing of this 
letter to his wife, Wayne had arrived with his 
division, which had followed him from Wash- 

65 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

ington's camp, at the American position near 
Wilmington. There preparations were imme- 
diately begun to meet the enemy's forces, which 
were reported advancing from the landing place 
on Chesapeake Bay. The eastern shore of the 
Brandywine River was selected as the most 
advantageous position to meet the expected 
attack, or, at least, to prevent the British forces 
from crossing the river, as was expected, at a 
place known as Chad's Ford. Wayne evidently 
examined the ground thoroughly, and made a 
strong recommendation to Washington, in a 
letter dated September 2, that a strong de- 
tachment of the American army be detailed to 
make a flank attack on the British as they were 
attempting to advance. This opinion he forti- 
fied by copious references to the strategies of 
Caesar and other great commanders of the past, 
who by sudden flank movements had succeeded 
in routing and demoralizing an already all-but- 
victorious enemy. The plan did not seem to 
have appealed to Washington 's judgment, since 
he directed the plan of battle on an entirely 
different theory. The American forces drew 

66 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

up near Chad's Ford, and attempted to pre- 
vent the enemy from reaching it, but, in spite 
of exceptional bravery and a most determined 
defense, were finally compelled to retreat. 

In this fight, as was quite to his liking, un- 
doubtedly, Wayne bore the brunt of the severest 
fighting, his force being directly fronted by 
the seven thousand Hessians under Baron Wil- 
helm von Knypenhausen, who vainly attempted 
until sunset to pass by and gain the ford. Then, 
however, he was compelled to retire, even 
though in good order, because of the fact that 
his supports had been driven from the field, 
when the two divisions under Generals Sullivan 
and Greene, forming the right wing of the 
American line, had been turned back by the 
fierceness of Cornwallis' assaults. Wayne was 
then compelled to retire, Knypenhausen being 
in front and Cornwallis in the rear. 

Undoubtedly, had it not been for the tenacity 
and courage of the British regulars, the out- 
come would have been different, perhaps even 
a complete American victory. Despite the fear 
and hatred of them felt by their contemporary 

67 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

enemies, these '^Hessians" of Knypenhausen's 
were a poor lot of people. They were not the 
trained German soldiers of the present day, 
but miserable creatures, recruited, for the most 
part, from workhouses and by press gangs, ac- 
cording to the custom of the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury in all European countries. They were fre- 
quently compelled to fight for the cause in which 
they had no earthly interest, by threats and 
compulsion, and large numbers of them seized 
any available opportunities to desert. Wayne's 
men deserved high credit, undoubtedly, for suc- 
cessfully withstanding for so long a time the 
fierce assaults of an overwhelmingly superior 
force, but, apart from the fact that, in those 
days, at least, it would have taken a long time 
to kill and disable a force of seven thousand 
men, or even to drive them oif, they might 
easily have withstood them indefinitely. From 
the standpoint of our knowledge of operations 
in recent wars, with the terrible engines of 
destruction now in use, it seems difficult, indeed, 
to understand the conditions of military fight- 
ing at the period of the Revolution. Usually, 

68 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

in musketry fighting, at least, the two opposing 
forces would line up opposite one another and 
continue firing until an opportunity appeared 
to adopt other tactics. That such affrays were 
not more bloody than they were can be ascribed 
only to the inefficiency at long range of the mus- 
kets of the period, combined with general poor 
marksmanship. Thus, as records show, one 
regiment engaged at Brandywine—the Thir- 
teenth Pennsylvania, commanded by Colonel 
Walter Stewart—lost but sixteen men in this 
battle and in the later affray at Germantown. 
The nature of the fighting done by this corps 
may be judged from the following account left 
jy one of its lieutenants, James MacMichael: 
'*We attacked the enemy at 5:30 p. m., and 
we were first obliged to retreat a few yards, and 
formed in an open field, when we fought without 
giving way on either side until dark. Our am- 
munition ahnost expended, firing ceased on both 
sides, when we received orders to proceed to 
Chester. This day for a severe and excessive 
engagement exceeded all I ever saw. Our regi- 
ment fought at one stand about an hour under 

69 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

an incessant fire, and yet the loss was less than 
at Long Island, neither were we so near to 
each other as at Princeton, our common distance 
being fifty yards.'' 

Undoubtedly, the greatest danger to such 
a force would have been its envelopment by the 
enemy, with close-quarters fighting, in which 
bayonets would be used and the sheer physical 
force of a massed weight of men would have 
been the greatest factor on either side. It was 
to avoid this very disaster— the speedy crush- 
ing out of its life by the superior numbers of 
the enemy on both sides — that the right wing 
retired before Comwallis, and later, also, the 
center, under Wayne himself, before the hordes 
of Knypenhausen. Wayne's retreat did cover 
the rear of Sullivan and Greene, discouraging 
any attempt to follow by the British regulars. 
Thus the American forces were able to retire 
in good order, even retrieving several pieces of 
artillery which had been deserted on the field. 
A spirited account of the rescue of the guns is 
left for us by one of the American officers 
(Colonel William Chambers), who writes: 

70 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 77 

''The general sent orders for our artillery to 
retreat, and ordered me to cover it with a part 
of my regiment. It was done, but, to my sur- 
prise, tlie artillerymen had run and left the 
howitzer behind. The two pieces went up the 
road protected by about sixty of my men, who 
had very warm work, but brought them safe. I 
then ordered another party to fly to the howitzer 
and bring it off. Captain Buchanan, Lieutenant 
Simpson, and Lieutenant Douglass went imme- 
diately to the gun, and the men following their 
example, I covered them with the few I had 
remaining [Wayne aimed and fired one of the 
field pieces himself] ; but before this could be 
done the main body of the foe came within 
thirty yards and kept up the most terrible fire 
ever heard in America, though with very little 
loss on our side. I brought all the brigade 
artillery safely off, and I hope to see them again 
fired at the scoundrels. Yet we retreated to the 
next height in good order in the midst of a 
very heavy fire of cannon and small-arms. Not 
thirty yards distant we formed to receive them, 
but they did not choose to follow." 

71 



CHAPTER VII 
FROM WHITEHORSE TAVERN TO GERMANTOWN 

THE American forces retired in good order, 
and that same night encamped at Chester, 
eleven miles from the field of battle. On the 
following day they marched sixteen miles to 
SchuylMll Palls, with the intention of forming 
a junction with Washington's army and barring 
the road to Philadelphia. In the operations pre- 
ceding the occupation of that city by the British 
there seem to have been a long series of un- 
fortunate circumstances. Letters containing 
important commands were lost, or captured by 
the enemy, and Wayne, Greene, and other com- 
manders were left to follow former orders, to 
the disarrangement of Washington's astutely 
conceived plans to oppose the advance. But 
for such unfortunate occurrences, coupled with 
the information given to the enemy by Tory 
spies, it is more than probable that the British 

72 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN— GERMANTOWN 

could, even then, have been held off. This opin- 
ion seems to have been shared by contemporary 
writers, among them "Wayne himself, who re- 
cords in one of his numerous letters of the 
action near Pawling Mill that, but for several 
unfortunate causes of confusion, they might 
have achieved a ** victory that in all human 
probability would have put an end to the Ameri- 
can war. ' ' 

Such explanations of conditions are neces- 
sary, in order to explain the apparent derelic- 
tion of General Wayne, which led to his trial 
by court-martial on serious charges specifying 
neglect of duty. These charges grew out of 
a most unfortunate affair: the attempted sur- 
prise of his camp, known to history as the 
**Paoli Massacre." Wayne, according to 
orders from General Washington, had en- 
camped his division at a point on the old Lan- 
caster road, midway between the Paoli and 
Warren taverns, in order to be in position to 
attack the British rear guard on the following 
morning, it being his intention to capture its 
baggage train. He had advanced with the 

73 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

greatest secrecy, as was necessary in any such 
undertaking, but missed the golden opportunity 
to lead a brilliant and, perhaps, successful ac- 
tion through the treachery of some Tory spies, 
who betrayed the location of his encampment. 
Consequently, the British rear guard com- 
mander determined in his turn upon a surprise 
attack, which was partially successful, al- 
though, as Wayne claims, and his superiors 
were convinced on his representation, he had 
been previously informed of the intended at- 
tack and posted his guards with his usual care. 
The enemy came on in such numbers, however, 
that they were able to **rush" the guards, and 
were upon the camp before the formation of 
troops had been completed. Indeed, as one his- 
torian remarks, they had **a force so large that 
two of the British regiments of which it was 
composed were not engaged in the horrible work 
in which the rest were so conspicuous, their 
services not being required." Wayne's report 
of the affair is as follows : 

** About 11 o'clock last evening (September 
20, 1777) we were alarmed by a firing from one 

74 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN— GERMANTOWN 

of our out guards. The division was imme- 
diately formed, wHch was no sooner done than 
a firing began on our right flank. I thought 
proper to order the division to file ofE by the 
left, except the infantry and two or three regi- 
ments nearest to where the attack began, in 
order to favor our retreat. By this time the 
enemy and we were not more than ten yards 
distant. A well-directed fire mutually took 
place, followed by a charge of bayonet. Num- 
bers fell on each side. We then drew off a little 
distance, and formed a front to oppose to theirs. 
They did not think prudent to push matters 
further. Part of the division are a little scat- 
tered, but are collecting fast. We have saved 
all our artillery, ammunition and stores, except 
one or two wagons belonging to the commis- 
sary's department.'' 

With the curious reluctance, so often noted by 
contemporary writers, the British troops 
neglected to follow up the advantage already 
gained, although, with their superior force, 
they might have inflicted even further damage 
upon the American lines. As at Brandywine, 

75 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

and at other engagements still to be recorded, 
the probabilities are that a determined advance 
upon the retreating foe would have transformed 
defeat into a rout, and made future progress 
far easier. We must not forget, however, that 
any such pushing on after an advantage meant 
precisely one thing, *^cold steeP' — and man- 
to-man fighting is distinctly repugnant to the 
modem soldier. It is one of the results fol- 
lowing the use of firearms as the principal 
element in battle. Nothing could better illus- 
trate this contention than the fact that this 
affair has been always known as a ^'massacre.'' 
Sixty-one Americans were killed, mostly by the 
bayonet, and the ** atrocity" of the thing long 
oppressed patriotic minds and imaginations. 
The same popular ^^horror'' was also visited, 
in part, upon Wayne himself, who was roundly 
blamed, first, for pitching his camp so near to 
the enemy, and second, for providing insufficient 
guards to prevent the disorder following an 
attack. A court of inquiry found against him 
on both these charges, and he immediately de- 
manded a court martial, by which he was thor- 

76 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN-GERMANTOWN 

ougWy acquitted. His defense was that Ms 
camp was at least two miles from that of the 
enemy, and that it could not have been other- 
wise located, in obedience to Washington's 
conunaads, and in view of the fact that he wa^ 
expecting to make a junction with the force 
under General William Smallwood. He was 
also vindicated on the matter of properly placed 
guards. The entire affair consisted in the con- 
fusion due to loss of letters from Washin^on, 
directing changes of plans outlined in previous 
orders. These letters probably fell into the 
hands of the enemy, and enabled them to cir- 
cumvent all movements made by Wayne. 

Thus^ three times within a week Washington 
had changed his orders, on account of the chang- 
ing conditions in the situation. On September 
15 Wayne had arrived at the White Horse 
Tavern on the Lancaster Road, with the inten- 
tion of carrying out his orders to make a flank 
movement against the British army as it at- 
tempted to ford i^ie river. Here a small skirmish 
occurred on the following day. On the seven- 
teenth the orders were again changed, so that, 

77 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

as already stated, Wayne should be able to take 
a position from wbich he could attack the 
enemy's rear while the main army under Wash- 
ington should resist its passage of the fords. 
Finally, both orders were rescinded, and Wayne 
was ordered to join Washington at Potts' 
Grove. Owing, perhaps, in part to the con- 
fusion following the non-delivery of these let- 
ters of command, the original plans miscarried, 
and Howe forced his way to Philadelphia. Be- 
fore attempting to occupy the city, however, the 
British commander dispatched large detach- 
ments of his troops to reduce the American 
fortifications at Billingsport, Mud Island and 
Red Bank on the Delaware River, in order to 
gain free access for the fleet in bringing up 
supplies. Thus, with an apparent lack of good 
judgment, he left himself in a weakened con- 
dition in his camp within a few miles of the 
city. Washington, acting on his own opinion, 
and against the strongly urged judgments of 
ten out of his thirteen general officers — only 
Generals Wayne, Smallwood and Scott favored 
it — determined to attack the British before 

78 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN— GERMANTOWN 

their detached columns could return to camp, 
and without waiting for the reenforcements ex- 
pected from the north. 

In the arrangement of the line of battle the 
right wing was assigned to the command of 
General Sullivain, to -whose division that of 
Wayne was also added. The left wing was 
under the command of General Greene, but, 
most unfortunately, did not succeed in reaching 
the field in time to join in the battle. Several 
other corps failed to make a good showing in 
the fight, with the result that, as seems to have 
been his fate on numerous occasions, Wayne's 
men bore the brunt of nearly the hardest fight- 
ing of the day. Indeed, had all the troops been 
of the same mettle, and under as good discipline 
as those under Wayne, it is not improbable that 
the British army would have been utterly 
crushed. 

The most interesting part of the whole affair, 
for the present, at least, is the experience of 
Wayne and his men. Here, again, as in many 
other instances, he has left us a clear account 
of the day's doings in his familiar and graphic 

79 



THE HEEO OF STONY POINT 

style. In a letter to his wife, written two days 
after the fight, he writes: 

'*0n the 4th instant at the dawn of day we 
attacked General Howe's army at the upper 
end of Germantown. The action soon became 
general. When we advanced on the enemy with 
charged bayonets, they broke at first without 
waiting to receive us, but soon formed again, 
when a heavy and well-directed fire took place 
on each side. The enemy again gave way, but, 
being supported by the grenadiers, returned 
to the charge. General Sullivan's division and 
Conway's brigade were at this time engaged 
to the right or west of Germantown, whilst my 
division had the whole right wing of the enemy's 
army to encounter, on the left or east of the 
town, two-thirds of our army being then too 
far to the east to afford us any assistance. How- 
ever, the unparalleled bravery of the troops 
surmounted every difficulty, and the enemy re- 
treated in the utmost confusion. Our people, 
remembering the action of the night of the 
20th of September, near the Warren, pushed 
on with their bayonets, and took ample ven- 

80 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN— GERMANTOWN 

geance for that night's work. Our officers ex- 
erted themselves to save many of the poor 
wretches who were crying for mercy, but to lit- 
tle purpose ; the rage and fury of the soldiers 
were not to be restrained for some time, at 
least not until great numbers of the enemy 
fell by our bayonets. The fog, together with 
the smoke occasioned by our cannon and mus- 
ketry, made it almost as dark as night. Our 
people, mistaking one another for the enemy, 
frequently exchanged several shots before they 
discovered their error. We had now pushed 
the enemy near three miles, and were in pos- 
session of their whole encampment, when a large 
body of troops were discovered advancing on 
our left flank, which being taken for the enemy, 
we retreated. After retreating for about two 
miles, we found it was our own people, who were 
originally designed to attack the right wing of 
the enemy's army. The fog and this mistake 
prevented us from following a victory that in 
all human probability would have put an end 
to the American war. General Howe for a long 
time could not persuade himself that we had 

81 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

run from victory, but the fog clearing up he 
ventured to follow us with all his infantry, 
grenadiers and light horse, with some :field 
pieces. I, at this time, was in the rear, and, 
finding Mr. Howe determined to push us hard, 
drew up in order of battle, and waited his ap- 
proach. When he advanced near we gave him a 
few cannon shot with some musketry, which 
caused him to run with the utmost confusion. 
This ended the action of the day, which con- 
tinued without intermission from daylight until 
near twelve o'clock.'' 

Wayne's account is graphically supplemented 
by another from the pen of General Hunter of 
the British army. He writes : 

* * The first that General Howe knew of Wash- 
ington's marching against us was by his at- 
tacking us at daybreak. General Wayne com- 
manded the advance and fully expected to be 
avenged for the surprise we had given him. 
When the first shots were fired at our pickets, 
so much had we all Wayne's affair in remem- 
brance that the battalion were out under arms 
in a minute. . . . Just as the battalion formed, 

82 



WHITEHORSE TAVERN— GERMANTOWN 

the pickets came in and said the enemy were ad- 
vancing in force. They had barely joined the 
battalion when we heard a loud cry, *Have at 
the bloodhounds, revenge Wayne's affair!' and 
they immediately fired a volley. . . . We 
charged them twice till the battalion was so 
reduced by killed and wounded that the bugle 
was sounded to retreat ; indeed, had we not re- 
treated at the time we did we should all have 
been taken or killed, as two columns of the 
enemy had nearly got round our flank. But 
this was the first time we had ever retreated 
from the Americans, and it was with great dif- 
ficulty we could get the men to obey our orders. 
**The enemy were kept so long in check that 
two brigades had advanced to the entrance of 
Beggarstown, when they met our battalion re- 
treating. By this time General Howe had come 
up, and seeing the battalion retreating, all 
broken, he got into a passion, and exclaimed, 
^For shame, Light Infantry, I never saw you 
retreat before. Form! Form! It is only a 
scouting party. ' However, he was quickly con- 
vinced that it was more than a scouting party 

83 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

as the heads of the enemy's columns soon ap- 
peared. One coming through Beggarstown with 
three pieces of cannon in their front imme- 
diately fired with grape at the crowd that was 
standing with General Howe under a large 
chestnut tree. I think I never saw people enjoy 
a discharge of grape before, but we really felt 
pleased to see the enemy make such an appear- 
ance, and to hear the grape rattle about the 
Commander-in-Chief's ears, after he had ao- 
cused the battalion of having run away from a 
scouting party.'' 



CHAPTER VIII 
VALLEY FORGE AND THE LONG DARK DAYS 

IN spite of the gallant behavior of the Ameri- 
can troops at the Battle of Germantown, in 
which, as Wayne writes, they were all but vic- 
torious, or, at least, must have been, but for cer- 
tain untoward happenings and ill-judged ar- 
rangements, the British army succeeded in oc- 
cupying Philadelphia. The next reverse of the 
American cause lay in the capture of the forts 
on the Delaware Eiver, which had hitherto 
effectually prevented the British ships from 
reaching the army at Philadelphia with sup- 
plies. In the first place, lack of sufficient avail- 
able forces for defense had led early to the 
abandonment of the post at Billingsport, in 
order to strengthen those at Red Bank and 
Mud Island nearer to the city. Both these places 
had been effectively fortified, and were able to 
withstand a determined attack by a large force 

85 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

of ** Hessian" troops on October 22, repulsing 
them finally with the loss of 200 men and their 
commander, Count Donop. With the intention 
of applying a more promising method of attack, 
Howe then planted a strong battery on Province 
Island, opposite to Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, 
and made elaborate preparations to bombard 
the works. Washington, although strongly 
urged by several of his advisors — ^Wayne among 
them — to assault and destroy these new works, 
declined, on the ground that his forces were 
insufficient, and that nothing could be done be- 
fore the arrival of reenforcements from the 
north. In spite of this decision of the Com- 
mander, Wayne made the bold suggestion that 
he be allowed with his corps to attempt the 
capture of Howe's batteries, but this proposal 
also was rejected. So, with the policy of cau- 
tion consistently adhered to, the result was that 
Howe completed his preparations without in- 
terference, and, in his own good time, proceeded 
to cannonade Fort Mifflin, compelling the gar- 
rison to withdraw, after a gallant defense, 
simply because there was no fort left to defend. 

86 



VALLEY FORGE 

This defense Washington characterized as cal- 
culated to *' reflect the highest honor upon the 
officers and men of the garrison." 

It seems regrettable, indeed, that no attack 
on the British battery was attempted, and that 
General Wayne thus missed an opportunity to 
add still further to the record of his glorious 
deeds. That he would have given an excellent 
account of himself in any such attempt cannot 
be doubted. He might even have been success- 
ful. Fort Mifflin f eH on October 15, 1777, thus 
closing a campaign full of brilliant deeds of 
bravery neutralized by one long succession of 
blunders and miscarriages of plans, which 
served to snatch victory from the very grasp 
of the American patriots over and over 
again. 

The season was then so far advanced that 
further operations had to be delayed until the 
spring of 1778, and the dreary and dismal days 
of Valley Forge began. While, as there can be 
no doubt, the American cause was largely ham- 
pered by actual poverty and the difficulty of 
always obtaining necessary supplies at the time 

87 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

required, it is also humiliating to record that 
further obstacles were interposed by political 
corruption, official incompetence and an almost 
unbelievable tendency to subordinate public 
necessity to personal considerations. Thus, 
while Washington's army, which had been so 
carefully preserved from the risks of unsup- 
ported attacks on Province Island, and other 
points, were suffering at Valley Forge from 
lack of clothing, shoes, and even food, all kinds 
of preposterous excuses were made for the 
wanton delay in supplying these necessities. 
Particularly conspicuous for dereliction in this 
respect was the Clothier-General of Pennsyl- 
vania, a certain James Mease, who actually re- 
fused to supply the clothing needed for the sol- 
diers, without a properly attested Order of 
Council, and even then persisted in all kinds 
of delays until the winter was passed and 
spring again opened. 

Unless history entirely misrepresents this 
gentleman, he was a wholly incompetent block- 
head, swelled with the pride of an important 
office, and far more solicitous to obtain personal 

88 



VALLEY FORGE 

adulation, and to persist in his own methods of 
doing things, than to see that the soldiers were 
properly cared for. He seems to have spent a 
large part of his time in traveling from home, 
and on his return to have observed a policy, 
which he may have considered ** economical," 
of retaining as much cloth as possible in stor- 
age. In striking contrast to such a person 
stands the heroic figure of Anthony Wayne, 
who, unmindful, as usual, of the hardships suf- 
fered by himself, wrote constantly, and at great 
length, to the authorities, urging, protesting, 
complaining and demanding, as action on the 
matter of supplies was constantly delayed. 
From January until April he wrote these let- 
ters to anyone and everyone who could at all 
avail to assist him, if so disposed; to Richard 
Peters, Secretary of War, to Thomas Wharton, 
President of Pennsylvania, to the Speaker of 
the State Assembly, and to the nearly unap- 
proachable Clothier-General himself. But even 
the best and ablest of these people seems to 
have been so hampered in his powers by party 
conflicts, incompetence in responsible positions 

89 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

and general ^*red tape," that nothing resulted 
from any of them save promises and excuses, 
the latter almost as ingenious as absurd. Thus, 
his appeal to the State President (or Governor) 
is answered by the allegation that the clothing 
asked for had been prepared, but that its de- 
livery was being held up because of the **want 
of buttons." On another occasion the excuse 
is that an ''immense quantity of clothing" had 
been ordered, and that its non-delivery was a 
real mystery. In order to expedite matters 
somewhat, Wayne ordered and purchased a 
quantity of cloth for uniforms, which he pur- 
posed having made up in camp, but he was in- 
formed that the merchants declined to deliver 
''until they know where to receive their pay," 
and that "the Clothier-General has peremp- 
torily refused paying Col. Miller's orders in 
favor of these merchants." 

Late in March, after nearly three months of 
hunger, cold and nakedness in camp, Wayne 
dispatched Colonel Stephen Bayard to Lancas- 
ter with requisitions for the sorely needed 
supplies. Nearly four weeks later, on April 

90 



VALLEY FORGE 

23, this oflScer wrote from Lancaster, as fol- 
lows : 

**Mr. Mease came home yesterday, and con- 
sented at last to let me have linen for twelve- 
hundred shirts, provided it could be made up 
here. Mr. Howell, Major Werts and myself en- 
gaged it should, and for that purpose we have 
been in and through every family in this town, in 
order to get them made up, and I have the satis- 
faction to inform you that they are to be ready 
in eight days from this. As the expenses of stay- 
ing here are great, I would gladly know whether 
I must remain, and bring them with me, or 
come immediately to camp. It gives me pain 
to relate the difficulty of getting anything from 
Mease. Waiting his slow motion, dancing at- 
tendance, etc., are insufferable. Had I full 
powers, it should be otherwise, but he prides 
himself upon his being confined to no particular 
state." 

Even at this late date matters progressed 
with the familiar slowness. Supplies of necessi- 
ties that should have been promptly dispatched 
to camp continued to come in in small quanti- 

91 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

ties. On one occasion, Wayne relates in a 
pathetic letter to Mr. Peters the whole situation 
and gives a pen picture of Valley Forge: **I 
hoped to be able to clothe the division under my 
connnand, but the distresses of the other part 
of the troops belongiag to this state were such 
as to beggar all description. Humanity obliged 
me to divide what would have in part clothed six 
hundred men among thirteen regiments, which 
was also necessary in order to prevent mutiny.*' 

In another letter to Mr. Peters, he writes, 
after a brief absence : * * On my arrival in camp 
I found the division in a much worse condition 
for the want of clothing and every other matter 
than I had expected. I am endeavoring to 
remedy the defects, and hope soon to restore 
order, introduce discipline and content, all which 
was much wanting and desertion prevailing fast. 
I flatter myself that I have so much the esteem 
and confidence of my troops that desertion will 
no longer take place. I am happy to inform you 
that there is not a single instance since my 
return.'* 

In another place he remarks in a way that 
92 



VALLEY FORGE 

shows the depths of misery achieved at the 
camp : **I am not fond of danger, but I would 
most cheerfully agree to enter into action once 
every week in place of visiting each hut of my 
encampment (which is my constant practice), 
and where objects strike my eye and ear whose 
wretched condition beggars all description. The 
whole army is sick and crawling with vermin." 
The bitter fruits of official incompetence and 
corruption, including the excuseless blunder of 
retaining such creatures as Mease in important 
positions, and the preposterous wranglings of 
opposing parties in the state councils, had 
doomed hundreds of brave men to the hardships 
mentioned. For they did not suffer from cold 
alone, nor even from difficulty in always secur- 
ing food, as was perhaps inevitable, but from 
the utter lack of necessities that could readily 
have been supplied by a well-organized and effi- 
cient management, for the government, though 
sometimes pressed for money, was by no means 
bankrupt. As late as May 4, 1778, Wayne wrote 
to President Wharton : 

*^ Enclosed is the return of the thirteen regi- 
93 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

ments belonging to the state of Pennsylvania. 
You will observe that tbey are very weak. The 
chief part of those returned sick at present is 
for want of clothing, being too naked to appear 
on the parade. Our officers in particular are in 
a most wretched condition. I can't conceive 
the reason why they are not supplied. I pur- 
chased cloth, etc., at York, last January suffi- 
cient to clothe a great part of them, but have not 
heard what has been done with it. I know it 
must be distressing to your excellency to hear 
so many repetitions of our wants, but whatever 
pain it may give you, I hourly experience much 
more from the complaints and view of worthy 
fellows, who are conscious of meriting some at- 
tention, and whose wretched condition can not 
be worse. They think any change must be for 
the better, and too many have risked desertion. 
The enclosed order has lately put some stop 
to it, and had we clothing I am confident that 
we should not have any more leave us, where we 
now have twenty." 

In view of all the difficulties besetting him 
daily, it is scarcely remarkable that Wayne 

94 



VALLEY FORGE 

writes in one of his letters to Peters, in the lat- 
ter part of January, as nearly a complaint as 
ever escaped him. ''I am too much interested 
in the freedom and happiness of America," he 
says, *Ho withdraw from the army at this 
crisis. I believe I have a much greater share 
of care and difficulty than ought to come to the 
proportion of one officer. Unfortunately, 
there is no other general in the Pennsylvania 
Line belonging to this army. We derive but 
little assistance from the civil authority, and 
every let and hindrance in the power of the 
Clothier-General seems to be thrown in the way. 
So that I am. almost tempted to. But I will, 
at all events, provide for my poor fellows before 
I consult my own ease and happiness." 

There was never any intention in Anthony 
Wayne's mind of resigning. He only hoped to 
convey the bitterness of his feelings. But 
while he and other commanding officers were 
engaged in struggling to keep their soldiers 
from dying of starvation, cold and disease. 
Congress saw fit to still further embarrass their 
efforts to secure order and efficiency by the 

95 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

passage of laws cutting the pay of military offi- 
cers, or rather providing that they receive their 
remuneration for services in the form of half 
pay for seven years after the end of the war. 
This may have been a necessary step — ^it prob- 
ably was, in the almost exhausted state of 
finances, but it created great opposition and 
disaffection among those immediately affected, 
many of whom were by no means wealthy, none 
of ihem favorably impressed with the idea of 
the buying power of the then greatly depreci- 
ated currency. Wayne, as usual, sincere patriot 
that he was, took the most favorable view of the 
matter, and registered no complaints whatever 
on his own behalf. His remarks upon the 
matter were concerned solely with the suffer- 
ings of others. In a letter to a good friend of 
his, Sharp Delany, in May, 1778, he writes : 

**The difficulty I experience in keeping good 
officers from resigning, and causing them to 
do their duty in the line, has almost determined 
me to give it up, and return to my Sabine fields, 
but I first wish to see the enemy sail for the 
West Indies. . . . For my own part, I have a 

96 



VALLEY FORGE 

competency, and neither look nor wish for any 
gratuity, other than liberty and honor; but the 
discontented say that seven years' half pay 
would not near make up for the depreciation of 
the money." 

Only the spirit of self-sacrifice and the great 
devotion to a great cause kept the little army 
together during the dark days of the winter 
of 77. 



CHAPTER IX 

REAR GUARD FIGHTING AND MONMOUTH 

DURING the long, hard winter at Valley 
Forge, amid all the sufferings resulting 
from hardship and official neglect, such prep- 
arations as were possible for soldierly effi- 
ciency were constantly in progress. Most con- 
spicuous, perhaps, among these was the engage- 
ment of Baron Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prus- 
sian general of high reputation, who, from gen- 
erous interest in the cause of American liberty, 
had freely offered his services to help train the 
army. Although without friends or connec- 
tions in this country, and wholly ignorant of 
the English language, he cheerfully worked at 
the difficult task of drilling and training the raw 
troops in Washington's camp in the manual of 
arms aad the maneuvers familiar to the armies 
of Europe. He is credited with promoting 
singular efficiency in bayonet work — some have 

98 



REAE GUAED FIGHTING 

said that lie introduced the bayonet to the 
American army, which seems to be untrue, as it 
was an inheritance from their British ancestry. 
But he is to be credited, undoubtedly, with orig- 
inating much of the efficiency displayed by the 
troops in the succeeding campaign. Such men 
as Steuben, Lafayette, and our own Wayne, 
who continued working and fighting for an ideal, 
even in the face of all the discouragements 
heaped up by nature and by human rascality, 
are as bright and shining lights in the midst 
of otherwise cheerless prospects. Why can not 
the noble examples of such heroic characters 
oftener excite the reverence and emulation of 
the rest of the world'? They were men, indeed ! 
We have learned already of Wayne's untir- 
ing efforts to secure from Congress, as well as 
from the Government of Pennsylvania, relief 
for the sufferings of his soldiers. We have read 
of the specious promises, pompous excuses and 
shifty evasions of public duty, not only on the 
part of the inglorious and useless Mease, but 
even from those who stood higher and much 
better in official life. But, as if all his labors 

99 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

had been in vain, and all his protests and peti- 
tions unheard, we read in a letter from Wayne 
to Sharp Delany, under date May 13, 1778, the 
following piteous appeal: 

*^For God's sake give us, if you can't give 
us anything else, give us clean linen that we 
may be enabled to rescue the poor, worthy fel- 
lows from the vermin which are devouring them. 
. . . Some hundreds we thought prudent to 
deposit some six feet under ground, who have 
died of a disorder produced by a want of cloth- 
ing. The whole army at present are sick of the 
same disorder, but the Pennsylvania line seem 
to be the most infected. A pointed and speedy 
exertion of Congress or appointing another 
doc'r [doctor?] may yet remove the disorder, 
which once done I pledge my reputation we 
shall remove the enemy. For I would much 
rather risk my life and honor and the fate of 
America on our present force neatly and com- 
fortably uniformed than on double their number 
covered with rags and crawling with vermin. 
But I am determined not to say another word 
on the subject." 

100 



EEAE GUARD FIGHTING 

Even Anthony Wayne had at last reached the 
limit of his patience with official incompetence 
and the criminal neglect of the brave men under 
him. He vowed to say no more upon the sub- 
ject, and no more did he say. His soldiers went 
forth in rags to meet a well-disciplined and 
thoroughly equipped army, and, thanks almost 
wholly to the inspiration of their brave com- 
mander, did more than their duty. 

Until nearly the middle of June the army 
remained in camp, availing themselves of such 
reliefs to their sufferings as were occasionally 
afforded. At the same time the able-bodied 
were constantly drilling and maneuvering under 
the direction of Steuben and other drill masters. 
In the meantime only an occasional light skir- 
mish had occurred with the enemy, notably one 
in the middle of May, in which a strong British 
force from Philadelphia attempted to flank and 
surround a detachment of about 2,500 men, 
sent under Lafayette to occupy the city, upon 
their expected evacuation. The Americans 
escaped without losses, but their rear guard, 
backed by a troop of Oneida Indians, put the 

101 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

enemy to flight with some serious damage. 
The long-expected evacuation of Philadelphia 
occurred on June 18th, when the entire British 
army, under the command of Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, crossed the Delaware River below Glouces- 
ter, and took its march to the eastward through 
New Jersey. The forces, in excellent condi- 
tion, after a winter of ease and comfort in the 
city, consisted of about 12,000 men, and were 
followed by a baggage train twelve miles long. 
Three days later "Washington, with his entire 
command, crossed the Delaware above Trenton, 
and proceeded to cautiously follow the enemy, 
with a view either to dispute his passage of the 
Raritan River, or of cutting off his baggage 
train. For a considerable distance he paral- 
leled the British line of march, sometimes at a 
distance of only a few miles. Finally he held a 
council of his generals to fix upon a method 
of attack. As usual, the majority of these peo- 
ple were in favor of a *' Fabian policy," as it 
were, or a continuation of extreme caution in 
any moves to attack so powerful a body. Only 
Wayne, supported in this case by General John 

102 



REAR GUARD FIGHTING 

Cadwalader, and partially by Generals Greene 
and Lafayette, advocated an immediate and 
vigorous attack. Washington, as on several 
other occasions, rejected the advice of his other 
officers, and adopted that given by Wayne; de- 
termining to attempt a surprise on the enemy *s 
rear guard, so as to harass the baggage train, 
and capture as much of it as possible. He ac- 
cordingly asked Wayne to outline his plan in a 
letter to himself, and followed the advice given 
in all of the main details. 

The plan of action adopted was that a de- 
tachment of about 5,000 men under the com- 
mand of General Charles Lee and Marquis de 
Lafayette was ordered to hang on the enemy's 
rear, and attack him as soon as possible in the 
morning ; the remainder of the army being held 
in reserve to support this detachment, in case 
of repulse. For, as Wayne confidently asserted 
in his letter to Washington, the ^^ enemy dare 
not pursue success, lest they be drawn into some 
difficulty from which it would not be easy for 
them to extricate themselves." 

The appointment of Charles Lee to lead this 
103 



THE HERO OP STONY POINT 

attack was, if possible, nearly the greatest error 
that could have been committed at the time. 
His sole apparent qualification for the service 
was that he had been appointed by some order 
of official favoritism to the rank of a major 
general. But such soldierly qualities as he may 
have possessed were exceeded by his laggard 
methods and his personal animosities. The 
latter evil trait was well demonstrated when, on 
the morning of the battle of Monmouth (June 
28, 1778), he ordered Wayne to proceed with a 
detachment of 1.200 men and attack the British 
left rear. 

''This, Sir, is a post of conspicuous honor, 
worthy of so brave an officer as yourself, and I 
trust that you will acquit yourself worthily in 
the performance of the duties which it im- 
plies," was his supercilious address to Wayne. 

That he may have hoped that the ''honor" 
involved would also mean Wayne's permanent 
removal from all military activity, thus reliev- 
ing the army for all time of " so noisy and bois- 
terous a fellow" [as he had often characterized 
him] , is strongly suggested by his own behavior. 

104 



REAR GUARD FIGHTING 

Instead of remaining with the balance of his 
division to support Wayne's men, he almost im- 
mediately withdrew, greatly to the disgust of 
his own command, and to the exasperation of 
Washington himself, who promptly ordered him 
court-martialed. In his attempted defense, this 
** caitiff,'' as Wayne would probably have called 
him, had he been speaking to intimates, sought 
to accuse Wayne of disobediefnce to orders, and 
to besmirch the characters of several other 
prominent officers. The result was that he 
was promptly challenged to duels by Wayne, 
by Colonel John Laurens, and by the brave and 
soldierly Steuben himself. But, enough of Lee; 
his record is part of history. 

Wayne went forward with joy [to his death, 
as Lee probably supposed], and promptly en- 
gaged the rear of the enemy. His attack was 
met by a body of American tories, known as 
Simcoe's Rangers, who made a furious charge 
upon the Pennsylvania regiment commanded 
by Colonel Richard Butler, a devoted friend of 
Wayne's, and his constant companion in arms 
until the end of the war. Butler's men fired a 

105 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

tremendous volley of musketry, which threw 
their assailants into disorderly retreat, but the 
advantage could not be followed up, because of 
the lack of cavalry. At this juncture the main 
body of the British rear began to advance, a 
force estimated at about 2,000 men, which was 
rapidly increased by new detachments from the 
front. This was the condition in which Lee was 
to have supported Wayne, in order to prevent 
the annihilation of his command. But Lee 
failed him; he was already withdrawing his 
men to a safe distance. Nothing remained for 
Wayne, therefore, but to follow him ignomin- 
iously. At the old Tennent Church, on the road 
to Freehold, Lee met Washington, who, as re- 
ported, was ** angry beyond restraint. '^ That 
Lee 's career was not terminated on the spot was 
due, undoubtedly, to the fact that Washington 
was just and humane, even in ^* anger unre- 
strained." However, it is reported that the 
usually calm Washington used stormy lan- 
guage. 

As events proved, Lee's stupid or intended 
blunder endangered not only Wayne and his 

106 



REAR GUARD FIGHTING 

men, but also General Washington himself, and 
narrowly escaped exposing the entire army to 
an assault in force by the enemy that might have 
led to a great disaster. Washington had barely 
more than fifteen minutes to meet the onslaught 
of the British forces which had faced about 
and were beginning to move in his direction. 
Even in that brief period, however, his masterly 
qualities as a general were demonstrated. Hast- 
ily calling to Wayne, who had just come up, 
he ordered him to take two regiments and check 
the assault of the enemy. These troops were 
drawn up in an orchard flanked on either side 
by hills, upon which artillery was quickly 
mounted, to enfilade the advancing British. 
Under Wayne's command at this time were 
three regiments of the Pennsylvania Line, one 
from Maryland and another from Virginia. 
These sufficed to hold the position until the main 
body of the army, sununoned from the rear by 
Washington, had arrived. They met the rushes 
of the English grenadiers, the best regiments 
in the service, first from the right of Wayne's 
position, then from the left, but were repulsed 

107 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

on both attempts by the withering volleys of 
musketry and the constant fire of the field guns. 
Then came the most dramatic event of the 
terrible day. The ** crack" regiments of the 
Guards were brought up, a corps renowned for 
bravery, dash and perfect discipline, and or- 
dered to charge the American position. Their 
line was drawn up within a short distance of 
Wayne's front, and their Colonel, Henry Monc- 
ton, a brother of Lord Galway, and one of the 
most conspicuous and brilliant of the young 
aristocrats sent out to crush the **vile rebels" 
of America, as the English contemptuously 
termed those whom we call ** patriots," deliv- 
ered a stirring and eloquent address, appealing 
to their soldierly pride, their esprit de corps, 
their loyalty to the King, and other high and 
noble sentiments. He then commanded them 
to advance and carry the position at the point 
of the bayonet, and he himself, with courage 
worthy honor and renown, led them against the 
ragged men who had suffered the torments 
of hunger, cold and exposure, while he was 
safely housed in the hospitable city of Phila- 

108 



REAE GUARD FIGHTING 

delphia. By all calculations of liuinaii prob- 
ability, these splendid soldiers should have 
driven the *^ embattled farmers'' in confusion 
before them, and discouraged the advance of 
reenf orcements from the American rear! They 
advanced at double quick, a formidable and ter- 
rifying array, confident of easy victory, and 
keyed to the uttermost in the performance of 
their duty. Wayne's men, who had heard al- 
most every word of the ColonePs stirring speech 
and at least had seen his gestures, stood their 
ground, waiting until their would-be assailants 
were nearly upon them, and then opened their 
fire with murderous effect. The gallant British 
Colonel had made his last appeal on earth: he 
fell riddled with bullets, his face to the foe. 
Scores of his veterans fell around him, and still 
the Americans kept up their fire, dropping six 
men out of every ten at the murderously short 
range, and throwing the survivors into a con- 
fused rout. Some of the more intrepid, with 
touching bravery, tried vainly to advance far 
enough to rescue their commander's crumpled 
body, but even they could not weather the awful 

109 



THE HERO OP STONY POINT 

hail of the American musketry, and, at last, they 
were all gone, save only the dead and the des- 
perately wounded, who could not move. 

"While Wayne's men were holding back the 
determined assaults of the British, Washington 
had had time to reform his army, and was ad- 
vancing all along the line. A fierce cannonade 
was kept up on both sides, and many assaults 
were made upon the American positions, but the 
final result was that the British turned and fled 
at all points, leaving nearly 1,500 dead and 
wounded on the field. 

Wayne's stand at Monmouth is one of the 
heroic events of history. It has been compared 
to the stand of the Greeks at Thermopylae, and 
is scarcely less conspicuous. In both cases a 
mere handful of brave and determined patriots 
withstood the seasoned warriors of a powerful 
army, their superiors in nearly every particular 
except in courage and steadfastness. In both 
cases, also, they repulsed their assailants with 
heavy losses, and with every circumstance of 
humiliation. Seldom has a warlike achievement 
been more enthusiastically acclaimed by all 

110 



EEAR GUARD FIGHTING 

parties. Wayne became an idol with the peo- 
ple as he had always been among his troops. 
Only one voice among them all was raised in 
criticism of his performance, and that was the 
voice of General Charles Lee, who attempted 
to clear himself of the serious charge of dis- 
obeying orders by arguing the ** temerity and 
folly, and contempt of orders of General Wain'' 
[for so he spelled the name in his letter to Rob- 
ert Morris], who, as he alleged, had audaciously 
provoked a battle with * ^ the whole flower of the 
British army . . . amounting in all to 7,000 
men. ' ' According to popular understanding of 
his orders, Wayne and Lee had been expressly 
commanded to do something closely resembling 
this very thing. Nor was Wayne guilty of any 
breach of discipline, as we must insist, even 
though, in Lee's words, his * 'folly" was mani- 
fested '4n the most extensive plain in America, 
separated from our main body the distance of 
eight miles." 

What Wayne began, rashly or not, on the 
plains of Monmouth, he and his men were 
amply prepared to complete, and they did com- 

111 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

plete it. As he wrote to Eichard Peters some 
two weeks after the engagement : 

**The victory of that day turns out to be much 
more considerable than at first expected. . . . 
By the most moderate computation their killed 
and wounded must be full fifteen hundred men 
of the flower of their army. Among them are 
' numbers of the richest blood of England. Tell 
the Philadelphia ladies that the heavenly, sweet, 
pretty Bed Coats, the accomplished gentlemen 
of the guards and grenadiers have humbled 
themselves on the plains of Monmouth. The 
Knights of the Blended Rose and Burning 
Mount have resigned their laurels to rebel offi- 
cers, who will lay them at the feet of those vir- 
tuous daughters of America who cheerfully gave 
up ease and affluence in a city for liberty and 
peace of mind in a cottage." 

Even in the midst of his triumph, Wayne was 
still the humorist and the solicitous command- 
er. To this spirited epistle he adds the follow- 
ing postscript: **We have not received the 
least article of clothing since you saw us at 
Mount Joy, and are now — ^naked." 

112 



CHAPTER X 
THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

WHILE the Americans had decidedly the 
best of the day at Monmouth, and while 
the moral effect of the battle was excellent, the 
results were otherwise small. No booty was 
captured from the vast British baggage train, 
and the army was not turned back from its 
advance on New York. All that the American 
army could do after its victory was to hang 
on the rear of the enemy, and, after he had 
gained his haven in New York, to so dispose the 
lines that any attempt to advance on the coun- 
try to the north, on the west baok of the Hud- 
son, could be effectually checked. In the midst 
of this irksome idleness, during the succeeding 
summer and autumn months, Wayne again re- 
newed his attempt to persuade Congress and the 
authorities of Pennsylvania to send the needed 
supplies to the soldiers. The results were as im- 

113 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

satisfactory as formerly, however — a plethora 
of large promises and a vacuum of practical 
performance. Finally, in March, 1779, he suc- 
ceeded in effecting the passage of a law by 
Congress giving officers half pay for life; ex- 
empting from taxation all land held by soldiers 
during their lifetime, and, wonderful to re- 
late, providing that they should receive a suit- 
able uniform while in the service. 

Wayne, however, was too zealous in the serv- 
ice, too bold in his demands, too entirely de- 
voted to the welfare of the men under him. 
Such a man as he could be requited only with 
the highest honors, or merely passed over with 
mere mention. The latter was the fate of 
Wayne, the indefatigable commander, the brave 
soldier and the real victor of Monmouth. As a 
part of the '^new arrangement'' of the Penn- 
sylvania Line in February, 1779, he was quietly, 
even contemptuously, superseded in his com- 
mand by General Arthur St. Clair, who was 
best known to his contemporaries as the man 
who had — needlessly, as it was alleged — evacu- 
ated Fort Ticonderoga, and to posterity as the 

114 



THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

*'most unfortunate officer in the Revolution.'* 
This was, of course, an occasion of the greatest 
chagrin to Wayne, who was so angered and dis- 
appointed that he actually contemplated for a 
time resignation from the army and return to 
civil life. His patriotism and better judgment, 
however, finally persuaded him to ask only for 
a leave of absence until his services should be 
required to command a new corps of the army. 
During his period of retirement he busied him- 
self in pleading the cause of the army with the 
government, and in securing such benevolent 
legislation as has been mentioned in the recog- 
nition and rewards of both rank and file. 

On Wayne's retirement from the army on 
leave of absence. General Washington had 
promised to secure his appointment as com- 
mander of a Light Infantry Corps, then in con- 
templation. This corps might seem to have 
been organized expressly for Wayne, and its 
officers and men picked expressly because quali- 
fied to serve under him in his daring military 
movements. On the announcement, in May, 
1779, that he was to command this corps, a large 

115 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

proportion of the field officers of the Pennsyl- 
vania Line earnestly solicited permission to be 
transferred to it. So numerous were petitions 
of this nature that Wayne wrote to Washington, 
**I had better be absent while the corps is being 
organized, lest it be supposed, however er- 
roneously, that partiality of mine for certain 
officers had tended to bring them into the 
corps." 

Wayne assumed command of this newly 
formed body in the latter part of June, 1779, 
scarcely three weeks before the momentous ex- 
ploit in the capture of the fort at Stony Point, 
with which his name will be forever associated. 
In this corps were one and one-half battalions 
of Pennsylvania troops, with two regiments 
from Connecticut and one from Virginia. In 
the words of Colonel Francis Johnston, in a let- 
ter to Wayne, the command was ** preferable to 
that of any in the army. ' ' Excellent as the per- 
sonnel was declared to be, and, indeed, as it 
showed itself to be, it could be no more than 
worthy of its gallant commander. He had made 
Mmself a new Leonidas in the orchard at Mon- 

116 



THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

mouth, and was destined to make even greater 
history in the famous surprise and capture of 
Stony Point. 

The fortified post of Stony Point was on the 
west side of the Hudson River to the south of 
West Point, and directly opposite to Ver- 
planck's Point, on which was another fortifica- 
tion. The position was upon a rocky promon- 
tory 150 feet in height, surrounded on all sides 
by water, when the tide was high, and access 
from land was possible only through a stretch 
of mud flats, when the tide was out. The 
British had gained possession of it early in 
June, and had greatly strengthened its defenses, 
as a preliminary to a determined onslaught 
upon West Point. Indeed, the possession of 
West Point, then regarded as the most im- 
portant fortress in America, was so strongly 
desired by the British that Howe and Burgoyne 
had attempted to make a junction, with the view 
of investing it, in 1777, and, now, the occupation 
of Stony Point and Verplanck^s had been ac- 
complished as a move in a new and well-pro- 
jected campaign. The defeat of Burgoyne at 

117 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Saratoga had destroyed the British hopes in 
1777, and the capture of the position by 
Wayne again thwarted them. They made but 
one more attempt, when, in the following year, 
they succeeded in corrupting General Benedict 
Arnold, whose proposed surrender was pre- 
vented only by the capture and subsequent ex- 
ecution of Major John Andre, a talented man, 
capable of better things and worthy a nobler 
end. 

It is decidedly indicative of Washington's 
strong confidence in Wayne 's soldierly abilities 
that he waited impatiently for the latter 's return 
to the army that he might entrust him with the 
hazardous undertaking of an attempted sur- 
prise on Stony Point. Certain it is that Wayne 
had not been many days installed in his new 
command before he was at work upon his plans 
for the attack. Both Wayne and Washington 
carefully examined the position, and took into 
consideration every possible plan for entering 
the fort with the smallest loss of men. A gen- 
eral assault that day would have been out 
of the question, since the position was amply 

118 



THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

fortified against the fire of any artillery then 
in use, and could be approached near enough 
for an attempt at assault by infantry in mass 
only after a most appalling loss of life. The 
plan adopted, therefore, was that Wayne, with 
a picked body of men, should attempt a sur- 
prise attack. 

So we come to the night of July 15, 1779, 
when the surprise attack was made, and the cap- 
ture of the fort accomplished. Every detail 
of the work was carefully mapped in advance, 
nothing had been forgotten or overlooked. The 
troops, drawn up into separate parties, each 
with its own particular duty to perform, were 
fully informed. There were three columns in 
all. Two were advance columns consisting of 150 
picked men, one to work up to the fort on the 
left side from the land, the other, on the right 
side; each of them preceded by a '^forlorn 
hope*' of twenty tried and trusty volunteers, 
destined to swift death or lasting renown. 
These detachments were to prepare the way for 
their more numerous supporters by clearing 
away the abatis, dispatching or capturing the 

119 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

pickets, and finding the paths over which the 
remainder could move in approaching the for- 
midable works. The third party was to charge 
up the slope in the center, and, as the others 
reached given indicated points, to open a tre- 
mendous fusillade, with a view to drawing the 
fire of the defenders, and thus covering the ad- 
vance of the surprise detachments on either 
hand. The left-hand column was commanded 
by Major Jack Stewart, of Maryland, the right- 
hand by Colonel Louis Fleury, a French officer 
in the American service, who was supported by 
the column under command of Wayne himself. 
The center was under Colonel Murfrees, of 
North Carolina. 

The attacking corps marched from their camp 
near New Windsor to Stony Point, a distance of 
fourteen miles, after dark, arriving in time to 
open the attack at 11 :30 o'clock. The way was 
wholly along unkempt country roads, upon 
which the men were often obliged to march in 
single file. Utter silence was commanded as 
the prime requisite, and the men were forbid- 
den to drop out of the ranks on any pretext 

120 



THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

whatever. Wayne was still the exacting dis- 
ciplinarian, who sternly required literal obedi- 
ence to the military law. In his address to the 
men of the Light Infantry, on assuming com- 
mand, he had said: 

' * Should there be any soldier so lost to a feel- 
ing of honor as to attempt to retreat a single 
foot, or skulk in the face of danger, the officer 
next to him is immediately to put him. to death, 
that he may no longer disgrace the name of a 
soldier, or the corps, or the State, to which he 
belongs. ' ' Nor can we doubt that he gave pre- 
cisely similar directions to these same men on 
this, the most momentous evening of his 
career. 

All the precautions were well timed to effect 
a successful issue. The British, in a calm sense 
of perfect security, believing that the fort could 
be assaulted only by a front attack, enfiladed 
by their cannon, had retired for the night, after 
posting only the usual number of guards. No 
one had heard or seen the advancing Americans, 
who were already on the slopes below the work 
even before the pickets had detected their ad- 

121 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

vance guards. The attacking column on the 
right, under Colonel Christian Fehiger, and 
General Wayne, were obliged to wade through 
deep water, which considerably delayed their 
progress. Once they reached the abatis, how- 
ever, the path was quickly cleared, and the ad- 
vance was rapid. Suddenly, from Murfrees' 
men, moving up the slope in the center, a noisy 
and continuous fusillade burst forth, awakening 
the garrison, who soon began answering the 
fire with musketry and grape shot. The 
American advance on the left suffered severely, 
finding the removal of the obstructions more 
difficult than did their comrades on the right, 
and being caught in the midst of a hail of bul- 
lets. Seventeen out of the twenty men in their 
'^forlorn hope'^ were stretched dead or 
wounded on the ground, and the advance column 
suffered severely also, before the sally port of 
the fort was finally gained, and the defenses 
were at their mercy. The three columns arrived 
at the door of the fort almost simultaneously, 
and there began a fierce hand-to-hand fight, in 
which there was no firing — only cold steel and 

122 




" 'Forward, my brave fellows, f onvard !' " 



THE CLIMAX-~STONY POINT 

the steady pressure of an overwhelming mass 
of men. 

Jnst before entering on the fight, "Wayne had 
written a personal letter to Sharp Delany, 
whom he addressed as *^my best and dearest 
friend," bidding him an affectionate farewell, 
as he did not know whether he should breakfast 
** within the enemy's lines in triumph or in the 
other world.'' Even his dauntless spirit was 
impressed with the awfulness of the situation 
and the desperate character of the attempt upon 
which he was about to enter. But in nothing did 
he show that he was afraid to die. About half- 
way up the laborious slope a musket ball 
plowed a jagged furrow across his scalp, so nar- 
rowly avoiding the infliction of a fatal wound 
that the gallant General fell stunned and help- 
less in his tracks. Small wonder that he sup- 
posed his end was come, for such a wound is 
both staggering and keen. But he roused him- 
self to a shout: 

** Forward, my brave fellows, forward! Vic- 
tory is already in your hands ! ' ' Then, to those 
beside him he added: 

123 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

''If I am fatally injured, carry me within the 
fort, and let me die there in triumph. ' ' Having 
bound up his hurt, his men lifted him on their 
shoulders and carried him forward to the top 
of the rise. The rumor spread quickly that 
General Wayne had been killed, but the soldiers, 
far from falling back discouraged, rushed for- 
ward all the more eagerly, determined to extort 
an even heavier penalty in their revenge. In 
such a moment as tliis the lust of blood rushes 
in upon men ; they turn blind, deaf and senseless 
to all save the ecstasy of battle ! 

Only a few minutes more, and the Ameri- 
cans were within the works driving the defend- 
ers before them. It was a slaughter grim and 
merciless, no firing, no sabering, but the con- 
tinuous stabbing of the bayonets, thrust and 
thrust! Sixty- three of the British fell by the 
bayonet within the fort — ^precisely the number 
sacrificed in the Paoli ''massacre," a life for a 
life — ^before the driven regulars threw down 
their arms and cried for quarter. Nor were the 
captors relentless. No f oeman begged for mercy 
who was not spared! And they could afford 

124 



THE CLIMAX— STONY POINT 

to be lenient. They were victors ! Among the 
American officers Colonel Fleury was first upon 
the walls. It was he who lowered the British 
standard, declaring the fort captured. In his 
broken English he shouted in the hearing of all, 
above the noise and turmoil of the fight, ^*Ze 
fort is ours.'' 

The advance of the American lines began at 
11:30, and at 2, Wayne dispatched a note to 
General Washington, brief, soldierly, generous, 
with no reference to his own most painful 
wound : 

*'The fort and garrison with Colonel John- 
ston are ours. Our officers and men behaved 
like men who are determined to be free.'' 

There were taken with Stony Point 543 pris- 
oners of war. The Americans lost fifteen killed, 
and forty-three wounded. Of the British an 
even sixty-three were killed, and many more 
seriously injured, something like twice that 
number. 

Immediately on capturing the fort the guns 
were trained on the works on Verplanck's Point 
and on the British ships in the river. Before 

125 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

morning the river and its shores were clear of 
British soldiers and sailors. 

The reputation of General Wayne's victory at 
Stony Point was immense. He received con- 
gratulations from the most distinguished per- 
sons in military and government circles, among 
them his old enemy Charles Lee, who wrote with 
what seemed to be evident sincerity: 

**I do most sincerely declare that your action 
in the assault of Stony Point is not only the 
most brilliant, in my opinion, through the whole 
course of this war on either side, but that it 
is one of the most brilliant I am acquainted with 
in history. Upon my soul, the assault of 
Schweidnitz by Marshal Loudon I think inferior 
to it. I wish you, therefore, joy of the laurels 
you have so deservedly acquired, and. that you 
may long live to wear them.*' 

The American Congress, also, a body so 
curiously insensible to Wayne's earnest, persist- 
ent and long-continued appeals for clothing and 
supplies for the suffering soldiers, voted him 
a grand gold medal, inscribed in excellent Latin, 
after the manner of the times, ^^ Antonio Wayne 

126 



THE CLIMAX'-STONY POINT 

Duci Exercitus" (**To Anthony Wayne, Leader 
of the Army"), and to several of his foremost 
officers, silver medals to the same effect. Thus 
was Anthony Wayne received among those 
whose fame is imperishable. 



CHAPTEE XI 
WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

DURING the months following the success- 
ful assault on Stony Point, Wayne's sol- 
dierly qualities were occupied, not in fighting 
with an armed enemy, but in contending end- 
lessly with official incompetence and negligence, 
in the vain hope of having his command prop- 
erly supplied with food and clothing. It seems 
to have been his evil destiny to be ever embar- 
rassed by these ignoble elements, which, more 
than hardships, discouraging difficulties, or the 
opposition of a formidable enemy, served to 
impede his activities. The nearly unbelievable 
futility and indifference of the authorities were 
the only agencies that ever thwarted his daunt- 
less courage. Repeatedly, after earnest, per- 
sistent and unselfish efforts in behalf of his men 
and their welfare, he was obliged to give it up, 
utterly baffled and discouraged. Even the gal- 

128 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

lant Light Infantry Corps, whose service at 
Stony Point had shed a halo of glory on the 
American arms, were not spared the lofty dis- 
dain of the commissary department. Nor did 
Wayne's indignant protest avail to alter the 
situation in any particular. Matters pro- 
gressed in regular order from bad to worse, 
and by the opening of November, as he reported, 
one hundred and twenty of his command were 
shoeless. Nor did this sad condition at all ex- 
cite official compassion. By the end of Decem- 
ber few, if any, of the men had been pro- 
vided for, as is sho^oi in Wayne's note to Wash- 
ington on the order of Congress that the Vir- 
ginia regiment be detached from the Light In- 
fantry Corps and proceed to Philadelphia. His 
reply was brief and to the point : 

** Colonel Febiger will march tomorrow at 
8 A. M., but for want of shoes he must carry a 
great many of his people in wagons.'' 

As if it was the opinion of the authorities 
that the only way to silence the protests of so 
persistent a protester as Wayne was to be 
rid of him, the next move was the disbandment 

129 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

of tlie corps itself. Accordingly, witliin four 
weeks from the departure of Febiger's men, 
Wayne again found Mmself without a command. 
On February 4, 1780, he wrote to Washington 
asking that he might be employed in any capa- 
city he might think proper, and then returned 
to his home iq Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
again compelled to wait patiently and submis- 
sively for another opportunity to server his 
country with his splendid talents. For nearly 
fourteen weeks he led the life of a private citi- 
zen, presumably caring for his farm and other 
properties, while waiting eagerly for the sum- 
mons to return to the service of his country. 
It came at last, a brief letter from General 
Washington, contaiaing the strong tribute : * *I 
shall be very happy to see you at camp again, 
and hope you will, without hesitation, resume 
your command in the Pennsylvania Line.'' 

Probably Wayne was as happy to be back in 
camp as was Washington to have him there, but 
little of importance occurred during the cam- 
paign of 1780 that could excite the ardor of 
even the keenest soldier. Washington's army 

130 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

confined itself principally to watcMng the move- 
ments of the British forces at New York, and 
to guarding the country between that city and 
West Point on the north. A few skirmishes 
occurred, an unsuccessful attack on a Britsh 
block house — ^which was celebrated in a series 
of highly satirical stanzas from the pen of the 
unfortunate Major Andre — ^but for the most 
part mere marchings and counter-marchings, 
patrolling the country, and awaiting a decisive 
move by the enemy. Thus, during the su mm er 
and early autumn, did the time pass tediously 
along. Then came a really momentous event, 
the capture of the same witty and unfortunate 
Major Andre, and the revelation of Arnold's 
tremendous treasonous plot, which through 
Washington's quick action was effectively 
thwarted. For a time, during the exciting weeks 
following this event, there was plenty to do in 
the way of guarding positions and preparing 
to head off expected movements of the enemy, 
but no fighting. In fact, if we may judge by the 
records of the time, the whole army came near 
to perishing of simple ennui. 

131 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

In tlie midst of the tiresome inaction of the 
year Wayne experienced all over again the con- 
stant annoyances due to the maladministration 
at the hands of the pompous incompetents who 
held control of the affairs of his state. There 
was no improvement worth mentioning in the 
food problem, nor in the clothing problem, per- 
ennially before the eyes of the General. But, 
added to this, there was a growing spirit of dis- 
content in the Pennsylvania Line. Officers com- 
plained that they had not received the recog- 
nition and promotions due to their services, nor 
yet the pay sufficient to the demands of their 
positions. The men protested that they were 
sparingly fed, wretchedly clothed — or unclothed 
— paid only in currency that was either so de- 
preciated as to represent merely a fraction of 
its face value, or to be utterly worthless in 
purchasing necessities, and that they were com- 
pelled to continue serving long after the expira- 
tion of their times of enlistment. Discontent 
seems to have been still further aggravated by 
the unwise policy of Congress in appointing to 
responsible commands men who had seen little 

132 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

or no service in the war, over the heads of sea- 
soned veterans who had worked and suffered 
unremittingly in the cause of freedom. A 
notable occasion for protest was the appoint- 
ment of a certain William Macpherson, a native 
of Philadelphia, and at the beginning of the 
Eevolution an adjutant in the British service, 
to the rank of major by brevet. This was in 
1779, but in the following year the folly was 
consummated by the detailing of this officer to 
the Pennsylvania Line with his brevet rank. 
The result was that the officers of the Line, with 
an almost complete unanimity, threatened to 
resign from the service, and letters of protest 
were addressed by Wayne and Irvine to Gen- 
eral Washington. Macpherson himself seems 
to have been as unwise and precipitate as his 
sponsors, for he took part in the controversy by 
addressing a semi-contemptuous letter to 
Wayne, bidding him, in effect, to **keep his 
hands off. ' ' The matter was finally settled only 
by discontinuing the formation of the new Light 
Infantry Corps, to which Macpherson had been 
appointed. 

133 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

All such occasions of discontent led finally to 
the famous and dramatic incident known as the 
** Revolt of the Pennsylvania Line." Wayne 
himself, fully aware of the justness of the pro- 
tests on nearly every point, was keenly appre- 
hensive of the consequences that must follow 
persistent inaction, when, on the first of Jan- 
uary, 1781, the enlistments of most of his men 
were due to expire. According to his habit, 
he wrote letters of warning, protest and advice 
to President Reed of Pennsylvania, and others 
who should have helped him in the extremity, 
had they so chosen. To Reed he writes : * * Our 
soldiers are not devoid of reasoning faculty, nor 
callous to the first feelings of nature. They 
have now served their country for nearly &ye 
years with fidelity, poorly clothed, badly fed, 
and worse paid. I have not seen a paper dollar 
in the way of pay for more than twelve months. * ' 

When, even at this crisis, the inertia of the 
Government could not be neutralized, private 
philanthropy took up the cause of the soldiers. 
Several prominent ladies of Philadelphia, under 
the leadership of Mrs. Sarah Bache, wife of 

134 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

Eichard Baclie, then postmaster-general, and 
the only daughter of Benjamin Franklin, pur- 
chased cloth and superintended the manufacture 
of the sorely needed and much-asked-for cloth- 
ing. Mrs. Bache collected large sums for this 
cause by personal solicitation among her 
wealthy friends, and at one time had as many 
as 2,200 women constantly at work sewing on 
the clothing thus paid for. But, as is too often 
the case with philanthropic efforts, these serv- 
ices were rendered too late to prevent the final 
grand explosion of the fury that had been 
smoldering for months in the breasts of the 
suffering soldiers. 

The storm broke on the evening of January 
1, 1781, when the men of the Pennsylvania Line, 
almost without exception, rushed from their 
squalid quarters, formed under arms on the 
parade ground, disarmed, although without an- 
imosity, disregarded all officers who attempted 
to interfere with their lawless movements, and 
proceeded to possess themselves of ammuni- 
tion, food supplies, horses, and other desirable 
equipments, including two pieces of artillery. 

135 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Wayne, accustomed to quelling mutinies, and 
given to measures of severe discipline, even 
when in full sympathy with his men, rushed for- 
ward fearlessly, pistol in hand, and ordered an 
immediate dispersal. The only answer to his 
command was the presentation of a dozen 
bayonets at his breast and the stern words of 
the mutineers' spokesman: 

*^We love you, we respect you, but you are 
a dead man if you fire! Do not mistake us: 
we are not going to the enemy ; on the contrary, 
were they now to come out, you would see us 
fight under your orders with as much resolution 
and alacrity as ever." The mutineers then 
broke camp, and started on their march to 
Philadelphia, carrying along with them, al- 
though without compulsion, General Wayne 
himself, and Colonels Eichard Butler and Wal- 
ter Stewart. The southward march was at- 
tended by no acts of lawlessness or depredation, 
and was made, as one contemporary has said, 
**with an astonishing regularity and disci- 
pline." 

To the inhabitants of Philadelphia, especially 
136 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

to the members of Congress, awake at last to 
the consequences of their persistent neglect of 
the faithful soldiers fighting for freedom, the 
day of reckoning seemed at hand. Even Wash- 
ington, who was prevented solely by the neces- 
sities of his position from taking severe meas- 
ures to quell the insurgents, seems to have con- 
sidered the affair as of the utmost significance. 
He wrote, some weeks later: 

**The weakness of this garrison, and still 
more its embarrassment and distress from want 
of provisions, made it impossible to prosecute 
such measures with the Pennsylvanians as the 
nature of the case demanded, and while we were 
making arrangements, as far as practicable, to 
supply these defects, an accommodation took 
place which will not only subvert the Pennsyl- 
vania Line, but have a very pernicious influence 
upon the whole army." 

The British authorities were, of course, elated 
at the *^ revolt,'' and confidently expected that 
the mutineers would quickly come over to their 
lines. Indeed, messengers were sent to meet 
them from Sir Henry Clinton's camp near 

137 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Elizabethtown, New Jersey, offering them most 
favorable terms to join the British army. The 
messengers were roughly handled, and confined 
as spies, while their letters were brought to 
Wayne himself, with full assurance that, in the 
event of an attack, they would submit to his 
command, in order to sufficiently punish those 
who had suspected them capable of *^ becoming 
Arnolds, '* as their saying was. 

Wayne must have been perfectly well aware 
that the aims of his disaffected troops included 
no designs for treasons or treacherous violence. 
But the members of Congress were painfully 
apprehensive lest they should occupy the city of 
Philadelphia, and compel the passage of laws 
for the relief of their distress; they could not 
disabuse their minds of the conviction that the 
affair would result in bloodshed. Consequently, 
a committee, including President Joseph Eeed 
himself, was delegated to meet the soldiers at 
some point distant from the city, and to treat 
with them upon their demands. On the way 
most of the committee lost courage to face these 
men whom, in their swollen pride, they had con- 

138 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

temptuously neglected for so long a period, 
and Reed, who seems to have had the virtue of 
conrage to offset any defects in his character, 
proceeded alone to meet the men in their camp 
near Princeton. Here conferences were held, 
J;he demands of the soldiers seriously considered, 
and the whole affair concluded by a tardy jus- 
tice, on the one hand, and a loyal submission to 
authority, on the other. 
In their final form, the agreements were : 

1. No more enforced service after the expiry 
of terms of enlistment; also an immediate dis- 
charge for all who enlisted under compulsion. 

2. The appointment of a board to pass on 
the question whether an enlistment was for 
three years only, or for the period of the war. 

3. The acceptance of the $100 bounty from 
Congress on reenlistment not to constitute evi- 
dence of enlistment for the whole war. 

4. Auditors to be appointed at once to settle 
the matter of soldiers' pay. 

5. Clothing for all men found entitled to a 
discharge. 

6. General amnesty and oblivion. 

139 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

The result of the examination made by the 
Commission is well expressed in a letter from 
Wayne to General "Washington, as follows: 

*^The Commissioners of Congress have gone 
through the Settlements of enlistments of the 
Pennsylvania Line, except a few stragglers, and 
have ordered about 1,250 men to be discharged 
out of the aggregate of the infantry (2,400 
men), and 67 of the artillery, so that we may 
count upon nearly 1,150 remaining. ' ' 

Later he wrote: 

**We shall retain more than two-thirds of 
the troops. The soldiers are as impatient of 
liberty as they were of service.'' 

Beyond doubt, Wayne's presence with the 
mutineers restrained them from such acts of 
violence as the less worthy among them might 
have counseled. The love and respect of his 
soldiers for him personally — although some 
complained bitterly that * ^ they had experienced 
more restraint and strict duty than usual in 
winter" — undoubtedly led them to submit will- 
ingly, after their indubitable wrongs had been 
righted. Washington was not tardy in recog- 

140 



WAYNE WINS THE DISAFFECTED 

nizing these facts. Indeed, lie wrote in a letter 
to Wayne, at the conclusion of the affair: 

'*I am satisfied that everything was done on 
your part to produce the least possible evil from 
the unfortunate disturbance in your line, and 
that your influence has had a great share in pre- 
venting worse extremities. I felt for your situa- 
tion. Your anxieties and fatigues of mind 
amidst such a scene I can easily conceive. I 
thank you sincerly for your exertions.'' 



CHAPTER Xn 
LEADING UP TO YORKTOWN 

IMMEDIATELY after tlie settlement of tlie 
mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line, the work 
of reorganization was begun. Of the 1,250 men 
discharged by the Commission of Congress, 
very many reenlisted at once, so that, as "Wayne 
stated confidently, **more than two-thirds of 
the troops '* were immediately enrolled. This 
matter satisfactorily settled, Wayne wrote to 
General Washington asking that he be assigned 
to active field duty, rather than to recruiting. 
Washington's reply was that active service was 
then **not possible,'' although Wayne was ex- 
cused from the arduous duties of recruiting. 

Wayne's return to active service in the field 
was not long delayed. On February 26, 1781, 
he was ordered to take a detachment of the 
Pennsylvania Line, and reenforce General 
Greene, then operating in South Carolina. His 

142 



LEADING UP TO YORKTOWN 

corps, consisting of six regiments, about eight 
hundred men, had their rendezvous at York, 
Pennsylvania, and were expected to march in 
the near future. From various causes, includ- 
ing not only inclemency of the weather, but also 
the usual preposterous delays about arming 
and equipping the soldiers, the detachment did 
not march until after the middle of May. Even 
with the lesson of the recent mutiny fresh in 
their memories, the authorities still insisted in 
paying off the men in the depreciated, almost 
worthless currency, against which they had 
formerly protested so strongly. This excited 
the fury of certain malcontents, who cried out 
against it on parade, with the result that, in 
order to nip the tendency to revolt in the bud, 
they were immediately tried, sentenced and shot 
before the assembled troops. 

Wayne's corps did not march from York un- 
til May 20. By that date Cornwallis had al- 
ready withdrawn his army from South Caro- 
lina, and was proceeding northward, to make 
a junction with the forces under General Phil- 
lips on the James River in Virginia. Wayne 

143 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

was now ordered to reenforce General Lafay- 
ette, then leading the sole American troops m 
Virginia, and to do his best in heading off the 
raiding parties constantly sent out by the enemy 
to prey upon the surrounding country. While 
engaged upon this duty Wayne and Lafayette 
were further ordered by General Washington 
to prevent, if possible, the retreat of Cornwal- 
lis into North Carolina. With this double pur- 
pose in view, the two generals constantly hung 
upon the rear of the British, annoying them as 
much as possible, while avoiding a general en- 
gagement, for which they were not in sufficient 
numbers nor sufficiently well equipped. 

The persistent plan of rear-guard fighting 
was carefully adhered to at all times, the only 
exception, and the nearest approach to a gen- 
eral engagement, being at Green Spring, where 
an attack was attempted under an entire mis- 
apprehension of the enemy's strength. On July 
6 Lafayette learned from his spies that the 
British were crossing the river, in order to 
send columns down on both banks on the way 
to Portsmouth. According to the understand- 

144 



LEADING UP TO YORKTOWN 

ing given him, Lafayette supposed that by far 
the larger portion of the enemy's forces had 
crossed to the opposite shore, leaving only a 
small part exposed to the attacks of the Ameri- 
cans. Wayne was sent at once to reconnoiter 
the position, with a force of about 800 men, but, 
on coming up with the enemy, he found that by 
far the greater force was still opposed to him, 
and that he was several times outnumbered. 
In approaching the enemy the small American 
force had been obliged to cross a marsh, which 
was passable only by a narrow causeway. Ee- 
treat was, therefore, impossible, and nothing 
remained but to make such showing as they 
were able until the arrival of reenforcements 
from the camp five miles to the rear. 

The action began, and continued for some 
hours, by a constant and ^^ galling'' fire of 
Wayne's riflemen. Finally, at five o'clock in 
the evening, the British lines began to advance. 
This was the signal for a spirited attack by 
Major Gal van, a French officer in the American 
service, who maintained a gallant fight, until 
driven back by the British columns. With the 

145 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

arrival of a small detachment of infantry, under 
Major Willis, at this juncture, a heavy fire was 
resumed by the Americans, and was continued, 
until it was evident the British were preparing 
to surround them. Wayne, perceiving that he 
was in imminent danger of annihilation or cap- 
ture, determined on one of the bold moves so 
characteristic of his military genius. Having 
by this time been strongly reenf orced, he deter- 
mined to save himself by making a sharp and 
short attack on the advancing columns, which 
should throw them into disorder, thus giving 
him the opportunity to withdraw from the trap 
and thus prepare for any further movements. 
Accordingly, within seventy yards of the British 
lines, he opened a furious attack, with both can- 
non and musketry, which lasted about fifteen 
minutes, and served to seriously disconcert his 
opponents. In the temporary advantage thus 
gained, he withdrew his troops across the 
marsh, and reformed on the other side of a piece 
of woods commanding the only path upon which 
the British could follow him. Although less 
spectacular, perhaps, than some of his other 

146 



LEADING UP TO YORKTOWN 

notable exploits, this charge served to save his 
cominand from envelopment by a force of five 
times their number, and has been universally 
praised by military authorities. 

After the battle at Green Spring Comwallis 
resumed his march to Portsmouth, where he 
carefully fortified himself, and prepared to 
make a lengthy stay. Lafayette was afraid, 
however, that he might use this city as a base 
for further marauding expeditions, and ordered 
Wayne to cross the river, and take up a posi- 
tion at a place known as Westover. In this po- 
sition of vantage he could effectually oppose 
any attempt to gain the open country in the 
direction of Norfolk and Petersburg, and, at 
the same time, would be barred from a retreat 
into North Carolina. 

Thus, these two faithful commanders did 
their best to carry out the instructions of Wash- 
ington, but the Commander-in-Chief had other, 
and even greater objects in view, which included 
nothing less than the investment and capture of 
Cornwallis and his entire command. So ably 
did Washington dissemble his real plans that 

147 



THE HEEO OF STONY POINT 

Sir Henry Clinton was led to suppose that he 
intended making an attack on New York, backed 
by the forces under Rochambeau, then stationed 
at Newport. Accordingly, with singular fatuity, 
he ably assisted Washington's real objects by 
ordering Obrnwallis tof select the most con- 
venient position near the mouth of the Chesa- 
peake, and there await the cooperation of the 
British fleet under Admirals Hood and Graves. 
In giving these commands, he was ignorant, of 
course, that Washington had information that 
a powerful French fleet, under Count De Grasse, 
was on the way from the West Indies, and would 
enter Hampton Roads late in August, also that 
another fleet, under Barras, had sailed from 
Newport to make a rendezvous at the same time. 
De Grasse 's fleet carried 3,000 troops, while 
that of Barras brought down the heavy siege 
guns and full stores for the army. Thus, on 
the arrival of Washington, on September 26, 
after his wonderful march from New Jersey, 
the investment of Yorktown was already begun. 
The combined French fleet engaged the British 
ships outside the mouth of the Chesapeake, and 

148 



LEADING UP TO YORKTOWN 

so disabled them tliat tliey could take no further 
part in the conflict. 

There was little opportunity for brilliant and 
dashing military movements in this affair ; nor 
was any attempted. Wayne's corps was present 
during the entire period, as a part of the di- 
vision commanded by Baron von Steuben, tak- 
ing their part in the daily routine duties of the 
siege. The situation for Cornwallis was des- 
perate. No resistance was possible that could 
at all contribute to his relief. Consequently, 
on the morning of October 19, 1781, he surren- 
dered himself and his entire command prisoners 
of war. 



CHAPTER Xin 
IN THE SOUTH 

LET ns go back to the spring of 1780. Gen- 
eral Wayne had been ordered to go South 
with a detachment of the Pennsylvania Line, 
800 strong, and join General Nathanael Greene, 
then commanding the southern department. In 
his correspondence Wayne gives as his reason 
for his failure to advance immediately upon 
receiving orders that ^^the troops were retarded 
in advancing to the general rendezvous (York, 
Pennsylvania) by the unaccountable delay of 
the auditors appointed to settle and pay the pro- 
portion of the depreciation due the men." The 
fact is that he was face to face with another 
mutiny. Later he was delayed by the advance 
of Comwallis into Virginia ; and so it was not 
until January 4, 1782, that he and his detach- 
ment, consisting of Colonel Butler's, Colonel 
Walter Stewart's, and Colonel Craig's Battal- 

150 



IN THE SOUTH 

ions of the Pennsylvania Line, and Colonel 
Gist's Maryland Battalion joined General 
Greene at Round 0, in South Carolina. In the 
meantime, General Greene had won the battle at 
Eutaw Springs, by which, quoting from Wayne 
again, ' * The British were cooped up in Charles- 
ton till the end of the war/' 

Immediately following the arrival of Wayne 
at his camp. General Greene sent him to the 
aid of Georgia, where a most distressing condi- 
tion of affairs had come about — not so much 
as the result of the British operations as the 
culmination of the bitter partisan feelings that 
had, for a long time, been rampant between the 
inhabitants of that state. In the bitter, malig- 
nant hatred subsisting between the Whigs and 
Tories, every man's hand was against his 
brother; in the background was the common 
enemy — ^the Indians; slender protection could 
be procured for life or property, no matter by 
whom despoiled. Taxes were not to be collected, 
and so impoverished was the state's exchequer, 
that, in 1782, the Legislature of the state passed 
a law authorizing the governor to seize upon the 

151 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

first ten negroes he could find and sell them, 
the proceeds to go toward the payment of his 
salary. The most lamentable outrage, prac- 
ticed by both Whigs and Tories in their inter- 
necine strife, was the custom of putting pris- 
oners to death after surrender. 

The only British garrison in Georgia which 
assumed any proportions was stationed at Sa- 
vannah. It was composed of 1,300 British regu- 
lars, 500 well organized and well armed Tories, 
any number of Tory refugees, and, in addition 
to these, several hundred Indian allies. To op- 
pose these Wayne had at his command about 
one hundred of Moylan's dragoons, three hun- 
dred mounted men from Sumpter's brigade, and 
one hundred and seventy volunteers, the whole 
totaling 570 men, besides the artillery, which 
numbered less than one hundred men, practi- 
cally all raw and undisciplined troops. With 
this discouraging outlook, it is small wonder 
that the General ^s heart cried out for his tried 
Pennsylvania troops who were retained in 
South Carolina by General Greene. To the lat- 
ter he wrote a pathetic but unavailing letter: 

152 



IN THE SOUTH 

''Pray give me an additional number of Penn- 
sylvania troops. I will be content with one bat- 
talion of Pennsylvanians. They can bring their 
own field equipage without breaking in upon 
any part of the army. I will candidly acknowl- 
edge that I have extraordinary confidence and 
attachment in the officers and men who have 
fought and bled with me during so many cam- 
paigns. Therefore, if they can be spared, you 
will much oblige me." 

In spite of the disadvantages enumerated, 
General Wayne's forces established themselves 
at Ebenezer, twenty-five miles up the river from 
Savannah, and made preparations to isolate this 
garrison from the rest of the state — and par- 
ticularly to accomplisii its separation from the 
Indian allies. In the meantime, while his prep- 
arations for military activity were being made, 
Wayne carried his campaign into other quar- 
ters by recommending to Governor Martin, of 
Georgia, that he issue a proclamation offering 
pardon and protection to the Tories who would 
join the patriots, and which, by the way, indi- 
cated also the scant courtesy that would be ex- 

153 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

tended to the Royalists within the state in the 
event of the success of the patriot army. It 
was hoped this would produce salutary effects. 
His preparations completed, Wayne at once 
proceeded to the execution of his arduous task. 
Crossing the Savannah River, February 19, 
1782, he applied himself to the seemingly hope- 
less task of detaching the Indians from the 
British service. While near the Ogeechee River, 
fifteen miles from Savannah, he heard of a num- 
ber of Creek Indians on their way to Savannah. 
Promptly dressing a number of his men in 
British uniforms, he sent them to meet the 
chiefs, who fell victims to the strategy, and were 
easily captured. After taking from them the 
provisions which they were carrying down to 
Savannah, he pointed out to them the failure of 
the British, the certainty that the Americans 
would capture Savannah, and made the request 
that they remain neutral, adding, however, that 
if they preferred the hatchet to the olive branch, 
the Americans were ready to meet them. This 
done, he sent them home. On the twenty-fourth 
of February Wayne wrote: '*It is now upward 

154 



IN THE SOUTH 

of five weeks since we entered the state, during 
which period not an officer nor soldier has once 
undressed, except for the purpose of changing 
his linen, nor do the enemy lay on beds of 
down." This waiting period terminated 
abruptly on the night of the twenty-first of May, 
when Wayne encountered the greater part of the 
Savannah garrison, under General Brown, who 
had come out to meet a band of several hundred 
Creeks. Acting upon his maxim, **that the suc- 
cess of a night attack depends more upon the 
prowess of the men than their numbers,'' he led 
his three hundred infantry and one hundred 
dragoons through forty miles of swamp to the 
enemy's camp. His vanguard — one-fifth as 
strong as the British force — charged with such 
impetuosity that Colonel Brown's whole comple- 
ment, picked infantry, Hessians, and Tories, 
were defeated and scattered. 

After this action. General Wayne removed 
bis camp to Sharon, five miles in front of Sa- 
vannah. At one o 'clock in the morning his rear 
guard was attacked by a large body of Creek 
Indians, who were evidently not impressed with 

155 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

the advantages of remaining neutral and who 
were under the leadership of Gueristersigo, the 
most famous of Creek warriors. After a slight 
recoil Wayne's forces recovered from their 
surprise and charged with such undaunted 
valor that the savages were routed and driven 
into the swamp. Gueristersigo was slain, and 
in one of his letters relating to this encounter, 
Wayne relates a dramatic episode which prob- 
ably has reference to the warrior chieftain. He 
says : * ^ Such was the determined bravery with 
which the Indians fought, that after I had cut 
down one of their chiefs, with his last breath, 
he drew his trigger, and shot my noble horse 
from under me." At daybreak, the British ap- 
peared, but were driven back to their garrison. 
Although the House of Commons had voted 
against the continuance of the war, in February, 
1782, and by proclamation had ordered Savan- 
nah, as one of the weaker posts, to be the first 
evacuated, such was the stubborn disposition 
of its defenders that only after the success of 
the operations of the Americans narrated above, 
could they see the wisdom of evacuating the city. 

156 



IN THE SOUTH 

This they finally did on July 11, 1782. Shortly 
afterward, the situation of Colonel Greene in 
South Carolina became critical, and "Wayne was 
ordered to effect an immediate junction with 
him. This he did in August. The light in- 
fantry and legionary corps, which had rendered 
him such important service in Georgia, were 
added to his command, and, in the latter part 
of November, he pushed on toward Charles- 
ton. On December 14, 1782, he took possession 
of this city, the last stronghold of the British 
in the South. 

General Wayne, notwithstanding the sobri- 
quet, '^Mad Anthony," had once more proved 
himself a tactful and diplomatic, as well as 
brave and fearless leader, and at the end of his 
Southern campaign he was gratified by the fol- 
lowing letter from General Greene: 

^^Dear Sir: 

* ^ I am very happy to hear that the enemy have 
left Savannah, and congratulate you most 
heartily on the event. I have forwarded an ac- 
count thereof to Congress and the Commander- 

157 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

in-Ckief, expressive of yonr singular merit and 
exertions during your command, and doubt not 
that it will merit their entire approbation, as 
it does mine." 

Thus brilliantly closed General Wayne's ac- 
tive campaign in the Revolutionary War, and 
the only sole command for the conduct of which 
he had been personally responsible. His ex- 
ploits in compelling the evacuation of Savannah 
had won him the admiration of citizens and 
soldiers alike ; he was hailed as a military genius 
and was referred to '*as incomparable as a 
general and strategist," the hero who had res- 
cued an oppressed people from the harrowing 
anarchy of internal disorders. The gratitude 
of the people of Georgia, in spite of the dire 
poverty of the state and its inhabitants, took 
a most commendable form, by voting, through 
their Legislature, 3,900 guineas, with which 
they purchased a rice plantation and presented 
it to General Wayne as a practical token of their 
gratitude, and also, it might be remarked, with 
the ulterior view of inducing him to become a 

158 



IN THE SOUTH 

citizen of Georgia at the close of the war. We 
shall have the opportmiity, later, to contrast 
the attitude of the State of Georgia with that 
of General Wayne's native commonwealth to- 
ward the one man who, more than any other, 
had given Pennsylvania her greatest share of 
glory at this greatest and most critical period 
of national history. In referring to this negli- 
gence of the State of Pennsylvania to make 
suitable acknowledgment as to the worth of 
her greatest general, one of Wayne's old com- 
rades in Georgia pungently remarked: '*It 
gives great satisfaction to the generous souls 
among your friends here, to think that the peo- 
ple of more Southern climes have paid some 
deference to your merits, and have demon- 
strated it in a more solid manner than empty 
praise. This is an article of no more worth 
here than the Continental currency." 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE END OF THE WAR 

WITH the end of the war General Wayne 
found himself confronted by serious 
problems. Almost immediately after reaching 
South Carolina he had found his health se- 
riously impaired ; in consequence of the fatigue 
and exposure to which his strenuous campaigns 
had subjected him, he fell an easy victim to the 
malarial infections of the Southern swamps; 
and never afterward did he regain his full health 
and vigor. Descriptive of this phase of his life, 
he wrote his friend, Dr. Rush, a characteristic 
letter: **My physicians, after trying the pow- 
ers of almost the whole gamut of materia med- 
ica, have directed the substitution of regimen 
and moderate exercise. ... Be that as it may, 
I have this consolation, that neither idleness nor 
dissipation has so injuriously affected my con- 

160 



THE END OF THE WAR 

stitution; but that it had been exhausted and 
broken down, by encountering almost every ex- 
cess of fatigue, difficulty, and danger, in the 
defense of the rights and liberty of America, 
from the frozen lakes of Canada to the burning 
sands of Florida.'' He nevertheless continued 
with the army of the South, taking his share of 
the labors that fell to the officers of the depleted 
little band of men. During the winter, he con- 
cluded treaties of peace with the Creek and 
Cherokee Indians, as one biographer remarks, 
** completing the work that he had begun with 
the sword. ' ' Also he received the allegiance of 
the disaffected portion of the inhabitants of 
North and South Carolina, thus ending his 
work of pacification. 

In 1783 General .Wayne received a tardy 
recognition of the extraordinary value of his 
services to his country by his appointment as 
major-general by brevet, by Congress on rec- 
ommendation of the executive council of the 
State of Pennsylvania. In all the annals of 
army history there is found no parallel case 
to the failure to make Wayne a major-general 

161 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

by promotion; and it does not improve one's 
opinions of the political methods of his day to 
learn that this signal neglect of a man whom all 
knew to be one of the most patriotic and effi- 
cient officers of the patriot army was the result 
of well meant efforts on the part of Congress 
to avoid incurring jealousy on the part of the 
states which had furnished the greatest number 
of men for the field. Pennsylvania had a suf- 
ficient quota of men in service to entitle her to 
three major-generals, but since a part of them 
were dispersed on the frontiers, this state had 
but two commissions ; one of these was held by 
General Mifflin, and the other by General St. 
Clair, both of whom, it must be admitted, had 
claims to political influence. Had there been a 
third commission, its holder would undoubtedly 
have been Anthony Wayne. Certainly, it is 
curious to note that, although there was no dis- 
senting voice as to General Wayne's sMU as a 
strategist or record for personal bravery, Con- 
gress was compelled by political necessity to 
withhold from him all public recognition, until 
his services had been of so conspicuous a nature 

162 



THE END OF THE WAE 

that to have longer withheld his commission 
would have been a national scandal. 

About this time, too, much unpleasantness 
and actual sorrow overtook Wayne in connec- 
tion with his affiliation with and the prominent 
part he took in the formation of the Society of 
the Cincinnati, a fraternal association estab- 
lished among the surviving officers of the Revo- 
lution for the laudable purpose of aiding each 
other, and, at the same time, commemorating 
their valiant deeds. With what seems to have 
been the characteristic attitude of those who 
were guiding the helm of state during this criti- 
cal period of our national life, every effort was 
made by politicians to discredit the motives of 
the sponsors of the Society. They were hailed 
as aristocrats, denounced as the forerunner of 
the entire loss of national liberty; and some 
malcontents and hot-heads declared it should 
be possible to disenfranchise every member of 
the Society— and, if necessary, *Ho drive every 
soul of them out of the state. ' ' General Wayne, 
who had borne without complaint all slights to 
his own personal dignity, as he himself had said, 

163 



THE HEEO OF STONY POINT 

^^ solely because of his love for his country and 
his sense of duty,'' felt keenly the unjust and 
ungenerous suspicions which were being circu- 
lated concerning the good intentions of the pa- 
triotic founders of the Society and expressed 
his sorrowful and indignant, but clear-headed, 
view of the situation in a letter to his friend, 
General Irvine. He wrote: 

**Dear General: The revolution of America 
is an event that will fill the brightest page of 
history to the end of time. The conduct of her 
officers and soldiers will be handed down to the 
latest ages as a model of virtue, perseverance 
and bravery. The smallness of their numbers, 
and the unparalleled hardships and excess of 
difficulties they have encountered in the defense 
of their country, from the coldest to the hottest 
sun, places them in a point of view hurtful to 
the eyes of the leaders of the factions and par- 
ties who possess neither the virtue nor the 
fortitude to meet the enemy in the field, and see- 
ing the involuntary deference paid by the people 
to the gentlemen of the army, — envy, that green- 
eyed monster, will stimulate them to seize with 

164 



THE END OF THE WAR 

avidity every opportunity to depreciate the 
merits of tliose who have filled the breach and 
bled at every pore." Again he descants upon 
*^ Caitiff" ingratitude, going back for his pre- 
cedents to the story of Greece and Rome, and 
possibly to the early teachings of his Uncle 
Gilbert. 

General Wayne's solicitude for his men did 
not end with the war, and his anxiety that the 
return of his soldiers to civil life should be 
made as easy and simple for them as possible 
was yet another source of friction between his 
ideas and those of the government of the state. 
On April 20, 1783, he wrote President Dick- 
enson, the governor of Pennsylvania, the fol- 
lowing letter: **You are pleased to ask my ad- 
vice on anything respecting the troops under 
my command belonging to the state. ... I 
fondly flatter myself that the wisdom and jus- 
tice of the Executive and Legislative bodies of 
Pennsylvania will receive the returning soldiers 
with open arms and grateful hearts, and I can- 
not entertain a doubt that they, on their part, 
will cheerfully and contentedly resume the 

165 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

garb and habits of the citizen." What must 
have been his feeling in regard to the disgrace- 
ful occurrence which accompanied the discharge 
and disbanding of his beloved Pennsylvania 
troops ! 

In June, 1783, the soldiers of the American 
army received a six months' furlough, and, a 
definite treaty of peace having been agreed 
upon in the meanwhile, they were discharged 
in the following December. The soldiers of the 
Pennsylvania Line were paid off with notes of a 
nominal value of twenty shillings each, but 
which were discounted to one-tenth of that 
amount; and some recruits from the western 
counties went in a body to Philadelphia to de- 
mand justice, an action concerning which there 
was an unwarrantable misunderstanding. With- 
out the slightest intention or sign of violence 
on the part of these troops, some of the mem- 
bers of Congress became alarmed and adjourned 
to Princeton, alleging that their liberty was 
threatened by a mob, a statement which failed 
to win either the sympathy or the credulity of 
the populace. There was, in truth, small need 

166 



THE END OF THE WAR 

for disturbance, since the first two companies of 
Wayne's veterans had just arrived from South 
Carolina and were quartered in the city bar- 
racks. Had the disgruntled recruits, many of 
whom had never been in the field, really been 
dangerous, the general's loyalty would have led 
him to give the authorities any necessary pro- 
tection. 

General Wayne saw the last of his Pennsyl- 
vania troops embarked from Charleston, en 
route to Philadelphia, July, 1783. So shattered 
was his health by the fever and privations he 
had undergone, that he was prevented from 
being a participator in the impressive cere- 
monies that attended Washington's farewell to 
his army. Also, he was unable to appear in line 
with his chief on his triumphal progress through 
Philadelphia on his way to Mount Vernon. 
Wayne now settled down on his patrimonial 
estate in Chester county, and gave the time 
which he had freely bestowed upon his country 
to the service of his state. 

In 1776 the Constitution of the state of Penn- 
sylvania had created a Board of Censors — a 

167 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

body of men who should be elected once in seven 
years to review the work of the various 
branches of the state government; and to de- 
termine whether this same government had been 
well or ill conducted; also they were to make 
a report of their findings to the people — in all, 
a most comprehensive program. To this Board 
of Censors General Wayne was elected late in 
the year 1783, and he became at once one of its 
most active members. As the chairman of the 
committee appointed to ascertain how far the 
provisions of the Constitution had been carried 
out by legislation, and in what way, if at all, 
they had been violated, he made a memorable 
report. In this he showed his anxiety that, now 
that peace was restored, conciliatory measures 
should be adopted and such a course pursued as 
to make the transition from a state of revolu- 
tion to a condition of normal citizenship as sim- 
ple a matter as possible. Among the impor- 
tant measures advised by the committee, of 
which General Wayne was spokesman, was a 
report strongly urging the revision of the Con- 
stitution for the reasons thus frankly stated: 

168 



THE END OF THE WAE 

**It is known how in times of danger, the Con- 
stitution of 1776 forsook us, and the will of our 
rulers became our only law. It is well known, 
likewise, that a great part of the citizens of 
Pennsylvania, from a perfect conviction that 
political liberty could never long exist under 
such a frame of government, were opposed to 
the establishment of it, and when they did sub- 
mit to it, a solemn engagement was entered into 
hy its friends, that after 7 years should be ex- 
pired and the enemy driven from our coasts, 
they would concur with them in making the 
wished-f or amendments. ' ' 

On his retirement from the Board of Censors, 
in 1784, General Wayne was elected to the 
General Assembly to represent his native county 
of Chester, serving with distinction during the 
years 1784-1786. This post found him as active 
and as aggressive in the interest of justice and 
humanity as past record had proved him to 
have been in the performance of any duty to 
which he was called. His chief desire was to 
make the Revolution and its results a source of 
blessing to all, and with this in view, his efforts 

169 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

were mainly directed to the tmiJ&cation and gen- 
eral satisfaction of all who made up the body 
politic of the state. In this endeavor, his at- 
tention was necessarily directed to the notorious 
*^test laws" of Pennsylvania, passed in 1777 
and 1778, and which disenfranchised forever, 
as suspected, Tories, Royalists, and others who 
had refused, before November, 1779, to take the 
oath renouncing allegiance to the King of Great 
Britain and declaring fidelity to the state of 
Pennsylvania. Among those to whom this law 
bore great hardship were the Quakers, who 
from religious scruples were opposed to aU 
political tests, and who formed the most praise- 
worthy part of the state. In all, these acts af- 
fected nearly one-half of the population of 
Pennsylvania — ^if the amount of taxable 
property be taken into consideration, more than 
that — and those who refused to subscribe were 
declared incapable of electing or being elected, 
or holding any place under the government, they 
were precluded from serving on juries, keep- 
ing schools, except in private houses, and for- 
ever excluded from taking said oath afterward. 

170 



THE END OF THE WAR 

By reason of his distinguislied military ca- 
reer, General Wayne was particularly adapted 
to the task of amending this grievance to the 
citizens of his state, and here, as elsewhere, he 
showed himself a fearless and persistent fighter. 
His first petition asking for the ahandonment 
of these ** tests," presented in March, 1784, 
was defeated. In September, and again in 
December, propositions made by General 
Wayne were voted down, a committee reporting 
on the latter occasion, *^that it would be im- 
politic and dangerous to admit persons who had 
been inimical to the sovereignty and independ- 
ence of the state to have a common participa- 
tion in the government so soon after the War." 
A bit of sophistry as short-sighted as it was 
lacking in ingenuity. The struggle began in 1784 
and continued until 1789, when a motion was 
adopted to repeal all laws requiring any oath 
or affirmation of allegiance from the inhabitants 
of the state. 

In 1787 General Wayne was a member of the 
Convention called in Pennsylvania to ratify the 
Constitution of the United States, and it is need- 

171 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

less to say that lie was one of the most ardent 
supporters of its adoption. His distinguished 
public career had, however, for a long time 
been harassed by the unfortunate state of his 
domestic concerns. By the year 1790 it was 
clear to all that the brave and resourceful gen- 
eral was a very poor business man — ^if success 
meant the ability to compete with the money- 
makers of his time. It was a disgraceful period, 
when low, thievish methods of transacting busi- 
ness were looked upon with the greatest indul- 
gence. Also, the sanguine nature which had 
been one of his most valuable characteristics in 
enheartening his soldiers and bringing his mili- 
tary campaigns to a victorious end, became in 
private life his most serious drawback ; and with 
the fatality which seemed to attend him, the 
plantation in Georgia, with which its citizens 
had presented him with such good intentions, 
now became the source of his deepest unhappi- 
ness and humiliation. 

He had devoted much of his time since his 
return from the army to the rehabilitation of 
his handsome patrimonial estate in Chester 

172 



THE END OF THE WAR 

county, which had suffered severely in the hands 
of the agents in whose hands he had been 
obliged to commit his interests during his long 
absence in his country's behalf. In the mean- 
time, he was seeking to devise a means by which 
his rice plantation in Georgia could be made 
productive. This could not be managed with- 
out the purchase of slaves to a considerable 
number, and for this outlay he did not have the 
means. Someone, probably his friend Robert 
Morris, suggested to him that he negotiate a 
loan for that purpose in Holland. Acting upon 
this hint, Wayne wrote the Minister Resident of 
Holland in this country, Mr. Van Berkle, a letter 
wherein he set forth the nature of his security 
and his needs in picturesque terms that bear un- 
mistakable evidence of the integrity with which 
he expected to carry out his share of the bar- 
gain. After some formal information as to lo- 
cation, etc., he says : 

''The estate used to net Sir James Wright 
from 800 to 1,000 guineas per annum — ^it is 
therefore an object of considerable consequence 
to me to set to work again as soon as possible, 

173 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

for whicli purpose I shall proceed for that Quar- 
ter in the course of a few weeks in order to pre- 
pare it for a crop in the Spring, but I shall want 
the aid of about 4,000 guineas to stock it with 
negroes. 

**I will punctually pay the Interest by annu- 
ally remitting rice to Amsterdam, altogether 
with the principal in the course of two or three 
years.'' 

It is a sad commentary on the state of our 
national credit at the beginning of our history 
as a united people that neither in this country 
nor in Europe could one of America's greatest 
military heroes borrow four thousand guineas 
on the security which included both his Georgia 
plantation and his Pennsylvania estate. Unfor- 
tunately it did not occur to the general that such 
a state of things could exist, and thinking the 
loan concluded, he drew bills for that amount on 
his correspondents, probably, as evidence goes 
to show, using the whole amount for the pur- 
chase of negroes. The bills fell into the hands 
of a Scotch agent in Savannah who demanded 
immediate payment. After many difficulties 

174 



THE END OF THE WAR 

and embarrassments, Wayne was ultimately 
obliged, in order to save his patrimonial estate, 
to sacrifice his Georgia property. In full justice 
to him let it be here said that he had made this 
propositien in the beginning of the controversy, 
and that the only answer to this was a suit in 
law, the only object of which was to make both 
his estates liable for payment. 

In 1890, although it was quite apparent that 
all hope of his becoming a resident of Georgia, 
even for a part of the time, as he had intended to 
do, was past, a large number of his friends there 
determined that General Wayne should repre- 
sent them in Congress. Accordingly he was 
returned as elected on January 3, 1791; but 
at the instigation of his opponent the House in- 
vestigated and on March 16, 1792, set forth 
that ** Anthony Wayne was not duly elected a 
Member of this House. " At no time was it ever 
charged that Wayne had any knowledge of or 
part in the irregularities charged to his over- 
zealous friends. His own version of the matter, 
given soon after the decision of the House, is no 
doubt the correct one. He says: **Both Fed- 

175 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

eralists and Anti-Federalists pronounced in the 
halls of Congress, after the fullest investiga- 
tion, my character stood pure and unsullied as a 
soldier's ought to be.'' 

After the chagrin attendant upon the unfor- 
tunate Georgia controversy, it was small won- 
der that General Wayne felt an overwhelming 
desire to go back to military life. In line with 
this he urged one of his friends, a member of 
Congress, to petition for his appointment to 
the command of the forces which his judgment 
with regard to the dangers that menaced his 
country convinced him would be needed at no 
distant date to repel the incursions of the Creek 
Indians. Only a few days after the question of 
his Congressional election had been decided 
President Washington evinced his confidence in 
him as a man of honor and the foremost mili- 
tary leader of the young Republic by appoiutiag 
him General-in-Chief of the army. 



CHAPTER Xy 
CALLED BACK TO THE AEMY 

THE magnitude of the trust reposed in 
General Wayne by President Washington 
can only be understood in the light of the seri- 
ous conditions prevailing on the Northwestern 
frontier at the time of General Wayne ^s ap- 
pointment. After the cession of the lands north 
and west of the Ohio River to the United States 
by Virginia and Connecticut, a territorial gov- 
ernment had been formed in that region, by the 
ordinance of Congress of July 13, 1787 — a fa- 
mous document in American history — and Gen- 
eral Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor. 
Emigrants were offered every inducement, and 
large bodies of them sought homes in this 
Northwest Territory. These pioneers lived in 
constant fear of the savages, for the Indian 
allies of Great Britain had refused to bury the 
hatchet when peace was made, some historians 

177 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

clainung that, actuated by the hope of acquiring 
the Northwest Territory and the Canadas in 
time, the British had persuaded the red men to 
fight for their lands. Add to this supposititious 
case a determination on the part of the savage, 
quite independent of any quarrel with the 
whites, that the white man should never occupy 
the lands west of the Ohio, and the true source 
of the frequent raiding and scalping parties is 
apparent. From 1783 to 1790 it was estimated 
that no fewer than 1,500 selttlers, including 
women and children, had been slain or captured 
by the Shawnees and Delawares who occupied 
the region. 

These tribes, reinforced by the Wyandottes, 
the Miamis, the Chippewas and the Pottawato- ' 
mies, concentrated near the Miami and the Mau- 
inee rivers and Lake Erie. Here they had ac- 
cess to the Indians of the interior, to the Ca- 
nadians, and the British, who were still holding 
Detroit and other posts northwest of the Ohio. 
Both of these latter, no one doubts who searches 
the records, aided and encouraged the Indians 
in their forays by the loan of organized forces. 

178 



CALLED BACK TO THE AEMY 

In January, 1789, Governor St. Clair, finding 
that he was unable to compel the Indians to 
stand by their treaties, determined to send a 
military force to the rescue of the helpless fron- 
tiersmen, and in 1790 General Harmar, who had 
been one of the most distinguished officers of 
the Pennsylvania Line, was dispatched to put an 
end to the Indian atrocities. This army, badly 
equipped and undisciplined, led by officers who, 
though they were brave, were lacking in experi- 
ence in the ways of the wily red man, met the 
Indians in force at what is now Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, and, practically annihilated, were 
forced to retreat to Fort Washington (Cincin- 
nati). The moral effect of this failure was dis- 
tressing; the savages were only the more in- 
censed and confident in their own prowess, and 
made their attacks with greater ferocity than 
before. 

General St. Clair himself was now sent to the 
Northwest with a picked band of men, consisting 
of 2,300 regular troops. On November 3, 1791, 
he encamped where Recovery, Mercer County, 
Ohio, now stands. Here was the man of destiny, 

179 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

and the eyes of the nation were fixed upon him 
with lively solicitude. The fight began at sun- 
rise of November 4. Eegular military tactics 
failed completely; officer after officer was shot 
down, until upward of sixty were slain; and 
when the Indians penetrated the camp of the 
militia at the end of the line the result was a 
total rout. Besides the officers enumerated be- 
fore, 630 soldiers were killed, and of the remain- 
ing 1,400 who survived we are told that * * scarce 
half a hundred were unhurt." Altogether it 
was the most disastrous defeat sustained at the 
hands of the savages since the historic defeat of 
General Braddock ; and it proved an even great- 
er disaster by reason of the great depression 
felt by the American people. In this battle were 
killed many of the most distinguished men in 
the Pennsylvania Line under Wayne's com- 
mand, and that leader was also deprived of his 
heroic and brilliant friend, General Richard 
Butler. 

The dismay and consternation into which 
these defeats, especially that of General St. 
Clair, threw the country made capital for the 

180 



CALLED BACK TO THE ARMY 

opponents of the administration; while from 
continued ill success the people looked with dis- 
favor upon a military life as a calling, the only- 
certain reward of which would be to fall by the 
rifle, the tomahawk, or the scalping-knife, for 
the Indians were well armed and provided with 
powder and ball. The cost of maintaining the 
army in the present low condition of the na- 
tional treasury was another reason against an- 
other campaign; and the many abuses which 
had crept into the management of the St. Clair 
campaign — insufficient arms and wretched food. 
All these things furnished proofs to the public 
mind of gross misconduct on the part of the 
administration, and were made liberal use of to 
accomplish party ends. Congress, however, had 
sufficient strength to support the President in 
his views, and by an act approved March 5, 
1792, authorized him to reorganize the army. 

It can now be readily realized that at this 
critical juncture the selection of the command- 
ing officer was more important than at any time 
since the commencement of the Revolution. 
Washington must risk his own fame, even, in 

181 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

this one act, for failure would mean tlie most 
deeply humiliating consequences. A man was 
needed who possessed sound judgment, the 
greatest caution and coolness, a broad knowl- 
edge of military science; he should be a strict 
disciplinarian, and, above all, a patriot. Envi- 
ous officers and statesmen who had the ear of 
the President constantly represented to him 
that ** Wayne was brave and nothing else''; his 
unsuccessful business ventures had created an 
ill impression which his strong integrity had not 
counterbalanced; and his love of fine clothing 
and display were vulnerable points of criticism. 
Nevertheless, Washington found that much- 
needed man in General Wayne, and appointed 
him to the command of his expeditionary forces 
in April, 1792. 

The United States army as it was then organ- 
ized consisted of 5,120 non-commissioned offi- 
cers and privates, one major-general, four brig- 
adier generals, and their staffs, the whole known 
as the Legion of the United States. This Legion 
was to be subdivided into four sub-legions, each 
to consist of 1,280 non-commissioned men and 

182 



CALLED BACK TO THE AEMY 

privates. With this force of men General 
Wayne set out on his expedition May 24, 1792, 
stimulated and forewarned by the parting dec- 
laration of Secretary of War, General Knox, 
that ** another defeat would be inexpressibly 
ruinous to the reputation of the Government." 
Wayne 's only stipulation was that the campaign 
should not begin until his Legion was filled up 
and properly disciplined, wherein we may see 
that he put his trust in good management rather 
than in good fortune. 



CHAPTER XVI 
FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

GENERAL WAYNE went to Pittsburgh in 
June, 1792, and straightway began to as- 
semble and organize his Legion. A hard task 
it was! His recruits were gathered from the 
slums and prisons of the Eastern cities — the 
refuse of the nation. Tales of the horrible mu- 
tilations inflicted by the Indians and the plenti- 
fuLiiess of whisky about Pittsburgh were hardly 
calculated to inspire these wretched beings with 
devotion to the cause. Desertions followed to 
such an extent that the recruits fled in squads, 
fifty-seven leaving a small detachment on the 
road to Pittsburgh at one time, and of those who 
remained Wayne wrote the Secretary of War in 
a letter dated August 10, 1792 : 

*^ Desertions have been frequent and alarming 
— ^two nights since, upon a report that a large 
body of Indians were close in our front, I or- 

184 



SLIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

dered the troops to form for action, and rode 
along the line to inspire them with confidence, 
and gave a charge to those in the redoubts, 
which I had hastily thrown up in our front and 
right flank, to maintain their posts, at the ex- 
pense of blood, until I could gain the enemy's 
rear with the dragoons ; but such is the defect 
of the human heart, that from excess of cow- 
ardice one-third of the sentries deserted from 
these stations so as to leave the most accessible 
places unguarded." 

To add to his difficulties, since so many of 
his most dependable officers had perished in the 
disastrous campaigns of Generals Harmar and 
St. Clair, he was confronted with the necessity 
of drilling officers as well as privates. For a 
time he worked as best he could in Pittsburgh, 
then, on November 28, shipped his recruits, who 
had been immeasurably improved in discipline 
and numbers, down the Ohio River to a camp 
twenty-seven miles below Pittsburgh, which he 
called Legionville. Here he settled down to a 
winter of hard work as drill-master. 

In the meantime, mindful of his duty to his 
185 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Grovemineiit and the American people, Wayne 
had left no stone unturned to ascertain the dis- 
position of the Indians towards peace. He 
made every effort to impress them with the ear- 
nest desire of the United States to accept any 
terms that would be just and honorable. In an- 
swer, the Indians continued their depredations 
on the frontier, and, claiming superiority, sent 
repeated and boastful messages as to their hopes 
on seeing the Legion advance into their coun- 
try. Colonel Harding and Major Truman, who 
went to them — ^not, it must be understood, by 
the order of General Wayne, but from the Gov- 
ernment — ^were received at first with every man- 
ifestation of good-will and then foully mur- 
dered, despite the fact that they carried flags 
of truce and were unarmed. Still anxious to 
conciliate, Wayne sent an invitation to a coun- 
cil to Complanter, and other chiefs of the Six 
Tribes who had been disposed to be friendly. 
In a dramatic toast given at the general's table, 
Cornplanter said: **My mind and heart are 
upon that river'' — ^pointing to the Ohio — *^may 
that water ever continue to run and remain the 

186 



FIGHTING THE NOETHERN SAVAGES 

boundary of lasting peace between the Ameri- 
cans and the Indians on its opposite shores.'' 
This sentiment of the * ^friendly Indians/' 
fanned and sustained by British policy, became 
the obsession of the hostile tribes, who de- 
manded that the Americans renounce all claims 
north and west of the Ohio, regardless of treaty 
or fair purchase. It was, therefore, upon the 
ground of the protection of unquestionable 
rights, as well as for the purpose of curbing 
Indian ferocity, and not from a policy of aggres- 
sion, that Wayne advanced at last into the coun- 
try of the savage. 

At Legionville, during all that winter, the 
resourceful and tireless Wayne wrought won- 
ders with his hopeless material. A review of 
the work he did there gives us a new view — 
that of thoroughness — of the fastidious Revo- 
lutionary general who had **an insuperable bias 
in favor of an elegant uniform and soldierly ap- 
pearance," and who was * ^determined to pun- 
ish any man who came on parade with a long 
beard, slovenly dressed, or dirty." He in- 
structed his riff-raff mob in military tactics and 

187 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

duties; more than that, he made men of them, 
as he marched them np and down the parade 
grounds. What he accomplished that winter 
has led one historian to remark: *^ Anthony 
Wayne— * Mad Anthony' — ^was not only an ideal 
leader of men in time of battle, but he was the 
most capable drillmaster the American army 
ever had." 

Of the result of his efforts, General Wayne 
wrote to Secretary Knox, March 30, 1793, ''The 
progress that the troops have made both in 
maneuvering and as marksmen astonished the 
savages on St. Patrick's day; and I am happy 
to inform you that the sons of that Saint were 
perfectly sober and orderly, being out of reach 
of whisky, which baneful poison is prohibited 
from entering this camp except as the compo- 
nent part of a ration, or a little for fatigue duty, 
or on some extraordinary occasion." With 
characteristic hopefulness he was now inspired 
with such confidence in the success of his expe- 
dition that he solicited the secretary of state 
to send him ''certain legionary distinctive 
decorations; also a legionary standard, and 

188 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

sub-legionary and battalion colors/' On 
receiving them lie wrote: ''They shall not 
he lost!'' 

In May, 1793, General Wayne moved his camp 
to Fort Washington — the present site of Cincin- 
nati — ^where he continued his efforts to maintain 
a well-disciplined force. From the administra- 
tion and from the prevailing conditions of the 
time, all adverse to obtaining cooperation and 
obedience essential to the preservation of an un- 
broken front, he had small encouragement to 
pursue his work. In January, 1793, Secretary 
of War, General Knox, had written : 

* ' The sentiments of the citizens of the United 
States are adverse in the extreme to an Indian 
war. ' ' 

A commission, consisting of three prominent 
Americans, General Lincoln, Colonel Pickering, 
and Beverly Randolph, Esq., of Virginia, were 
sent by the government to treat with the In- 
dians who had indicated a disposition to con- 
sider peace ; and while these negotiations were 
pending. Secretary Knox again wrote : 

**It will therefore be still more and more nec- 
189 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

essary even than in the past summer, that no 
offensive be taken against the Indians. ' ' 

Moreover, it is said, that at the instigation of 
the British who accompanied these peace com- 
missioners, the latter wrote Secretary Knox a 
strong protest against Wayne's work on the 
drill-ground, as *^this procedure on his part 
angered the Indians, and that the British con- 
sidered it unfair and unwarrantable." Never- 
theless the generaPs experience with the sav- 
ages had convinced him that they would not 
yield, and he persevered in perfecting his army. 
He was justified in his convictions, for when 
the peace commissioners reached Detroit, Au- 
gust 13, 1783, they received from a general 
council the following message: 

** Brothers : We shall be persuaded that you 
mean to do us justice if you agree that the Ohio 
shall remain the boundary line between us. If 
you will not consent thereto, our meeting will 
be altogether unnecessary." 

A battle was now inevitable, if not a pro- 
longed war, and Wayne, who had sent to Ken- 
tucky for mounted volunteers while awaiting 

190 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

the end of tlie negotiations, was ready. At last, 
in September, 1793, General Knox wrote : 

**Tlie Indians have refused to treat . . . 
every offer has been made to obtain peace by 
milder terms than the sword; the efforts have 
failed under circumstances which leave nothing 
for us to expect but war,'* continuing with the 
oft repeated warning, *'Let it therefore be 
again, and for the last time, impressed deeply 
upon your mind, that as little as possible is to 
be hazarded, that your force is fully adequate to 
the object you purpose to effect, and that a 
defeat at the present time, and under the 
present circumstances, would be pernicious 
in the highest degree to the interests of our 
country. ' ' 

To this suggestion General Wayne sent a for- 
cible reply : * ^ I pray you not to permit present 
appearances to cause too much anxiety either in 
the mind of the President or yourself on account 
of the army. Knowing the critical situation of 
our infant nation, and feeling for the honor and 
reputation of the government (which I will de- 
fend with my latest breath), you may rest as- 

191 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

sured that I will not commit the Legion unneo- 
essarily." 

Wayne now started on his advance into the 
Indian country. On October 7 he left *^ Hob- 
son's Choice, '^ as he called his camp near Cin- 
cinnati, with his legions of troops on the march 
through the wilderness. On October 13, he en- 
camped on a spot which he named Greeneville, 
in honor of his old friend and comrade, Gen- 
eral Greene — a post six miles north of Fort Jef- 
ferson and eighty miles from Cincinnati. This 
place he fortified for his winter quarters, and 
here the command spent several months cut 
off from all communication with the govern- 
ment at Philadelphia, and surrounded by hostile 
savages. There were frequent encounters with 
these when convoys of provisions were sur- 
prised and their escorts murdered. As a means 
of giving his troops experience, on December 
23, Wayne sent several companies of soldiers 
forward to the battlefield on which St. Clair 
had met his defeat in 1791, with the double pur- 
pose of burying the bones of their comrades 
who had perished there, and to fortify the site. 

192 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

In order to encourage the troops who were or- 
dered to this service, Wayne personally ad- 
vanced to the same spot. 

After the erection of this fort, which he 
named **Fort Recovery,'' General Wayne re- 
ceived some overtures of peace from the In- 
dians, to whom, although he had no faith in 
their professions, he expressed himself as highly 
gratified and agreed to open negotiations, 
only asking that, as proof of their sincerity, 
they should deliver to him the captives they 
had taken. This was never done, and nothing 
more was heard of pacific proposals. On the 
contrary, the situation became every day more 
difficult; it needed the exercise of the widest 
vigilance and wisdom on the part of the com- 
mander of our army and the utmost loyalty of 
his followers. With the impressment of Ameri- 
can seamen, the confiscation of our cargoes, 
and other hostile acts of the English thus going 
on, there was every prospect of war with Great 
Britain. Moreover, the British, who still main- 
tained strong garrisons on the frontier, built a 
fort at the foot of the Maumee Rapids (Fort 

193 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

Miami), which the Indians believed to be im- 
pregnable and the erection of which no doubt 
encouraged them to hope that, in case of battle, 
they would be supported by tried battalions of 
English allies. 

From these circumstances it may be seen that 
General Wayne's position was such that one in- 
judicious move on his part might certainly be 
the means of bringing on a second war with 
Great Britain. In this emergency the prudence 
of his conduct was such that at last he obtained 
the tardy approbation of his government. A 
communication from the Secretary of War, 
dated March 31, informed him that the way in 
which he had taken a position on the scene of 
General St. Clair's defeat, and the manner in 
which he had treated the false peace proposals 
of the hostile red men, were ** highly satisfac- 
tory and exceedingly proper.'' The secretary 
proceeded to say : 

'^It is with great pleasure, sir, that I trans- 
mit to you the approbation of the President of 
the United States for your conduct generally, 
since you have had the command, and more par- 

194 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

ticularly, for the judicious military formation 
of your troops; the precautions you appear to 
have taken in your advance, in your fortified 
camp, and in your arrangements for a full and 
abundant supply of provisions on hand ^'— a 
commendation most flattering in view of the re- 
verses encountered by his predecessors, Har- 
mar and St. Clair. Later, General Knox wrote : 
^^If therefore, in the course of your opera- 
tions against the Indian enemy, it should have 
become necessary to dislodge the party at the 
rapids of the Miami (meaning the English gar- 
rison), you are hereby authorized in the name 
of the President of the United States to do it." 
Thus was **Mad Anthony" Wayne given 
power to conduct the war according to his sole 
discretion; also to take the step which might 
have led to war with England. 

Hostilities opened on the morning of June 
thirtieth, 1794, when, under the walls of Fort 
Recovery, an escort under Major M'Mahan was 
attacked by a large body of Indians and driven 
into the fort. Major M'Mahan and other valued 
officers losing their lives. An assault was then 

195 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

made on the fort, and tlie Indians, who were re- 
pulsed with heavy loss, gained from their dis- 
comfiture some degree of respect for the new 
American Commander-in-Chief and American 
arms. About the middle of July General Wayne 
was joined by a strong mounted force from 
Kentucky, under the command of Major-Gen- 
eral Scott. He now judged his preparations 
complete and moved up to the English garrison 
at Fort Miami. Here he constructed a fortifi- 
cation at the junction of the Le Glaize and Mi- 
ami rivers, which he appropriately called Fort 
Defiance. Although now fully prepared to strike 
the blow which would forever settle the ques- 
tion of supremacy on the American frontier, 
Wayne made one more attempt to secure peace 
without bloodshed, and sent the Indians a propo- 
sition by a special flag. Confident of the assist- 
ance promised by their white allies, and secure 
in their own prowess, the savages rejected all 
proposals, and one of the most memorable In- 
dian battles in all history followed. 

On the morning of the fifteenth of August 
the army advanced from Fort Defiance; and 

196 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

on the eighteenth arrived at Roche de Bout, at 
the head of the rapids ; they camped there until 
the nineteenth, while scouts examined the en- 
emy's ground and small fortifications. On the 
morning of the twentieth the Americans ad- 
vanced in two lines through a thick wood ex- 
tending for miles on every side, where the sav- 
ages lay in wait. The ground of the forest was 
covered with fallen timbers, the aftermath of 
a tornado, and the whole situation was an ideal 
one for the foe. In a location such as this the 
cavalry were practically useless, while two miles 
below was the British fort, from which the In- 
dians expected help in extremity. Five or six 
miles below the camp. Major Price, with his 
advance guard, saw Indians and charged. Upon 
that, the enemy in full force in the midst of the 
tangled tree trunks opened a galling fire that 
threw the Kentuckians back on Wayne's main 
army. It was the supreme moment. Wayne 
now ordered the militia, under General Scott, 
to turn the enemy's right, and the dragoons 
of the Legion to cut in between the river and 
the enemy's left. At the same time the line 

197 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

of infantiy, 900 strong, with bayonets fixed, 
was stretched before the enemy's fighting front ; 
while a second line was placed in the rear as 
reserve forces. When the word was given to 
charge, every man leaped forward, yelling with 
the joy of the fight; they bayoneted the red 
men and their allies behind the logs, and shot 
them down as they fled, until they had driven 
them past the British forts (which were tightly 
closed) and scattered them in the wilderness. 
Thus the bayonet charge decided the fate of the 
battle and practically ended the long warfare on 
the frontier. A few small raids were after- 
wards made, but the tribes lost hope of victory. 
In this engagement the American loss was 33 
killed, and 100 wounded. The Indians lost 
several times as many. The army now returned 
to Le Glaize by easy marches, reaching that 
post on the twenty-seventh of August; thence 
they marched to Fort Defiance and back to 
Greeneville. 

Although suffering acutely from an attack 
of the gout on the morning the battle began. 
General Wayne was able to prevail over his 

198 



FIGHTING THE NORTHERN SAVAGES 

physical disability, and spent much of the next 
day, with his staff, in reconnoitering the British 
fort, thus giving great offense to the com- 
mander. Major Campbell. As the result of this 
incident the following epistolary exchange of 
views took place : 

*^ Major Campbell to General Wayne. 



<<! 



Sir, — An army of the United States of 
America, said to be under your command, have 
taken post on the banks of the Miami for up- 
wards of the last 24 hours almost within reach 
of the guns of this fort, being a post belonging 
to his Majesty the King of Great Britain, oc- 
cupied by his Majesty's troops, and which I 
have the honor to command, it becomes my duty 
to inform myself as speedily as possible in 
what light I am to view your approach to this 
garrison. I have no hesitation, on my part, to 
say that I know of no war existing between 
Great Britain and America. 
**I have the honor, etc., etc." 

Neither did General Wayne have any ^* hesita- 
tion,'' for he replied to this effect: 

199 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 



a 



Sir:— I have received your letter of this 
date, requiring from me the motives which have 
moved the army under my command to the po- 
sition that they at present occupy far within 
the acknowledged jurisdiction of the United 
States. 

** Without questioning the authority or the 
propriety of your interrogatory, I think I may, 
without breach of decorum, observe to you that 
you are entitled to an answer. The most full 
and satisfactory one was announced to you from 
the muzzles of my small arms yesterday morn- 
ing in the action against the hordes of savages 
in the vicinity of your post which terminated 
gloriously to the American arms, but had it 
continued until the Indians, etc., were driven 
under the influence of the post and guns you 
mention, they would not much have impeded 
the progress of the Victorious Army under my 
command — as no such post was established at 
the commencement of the present war between 
the Indians and the United States." 



CHAPTER XVn 

THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER AND 
CONCLUSION 

THE importance of General Anthony 
Wayne's services in forcing the decisive 
battle at the Falls of the Miami, which resulted 
in the complete subjugation of the Indians of 
the Northwest, cannot be overestimated. He is 
entitled to lasting fame and to the enduring 
gratitude of the millions of prosperous people 
who now inhabit the fertile lands lying between 
the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, as the man 
who opened this magniificent domain to the 
home-seeker, and obtained for him the consti- 
tutional, and actual, right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness on his own lands. By 
the brilliant success of this victory over the 
combined tribes, the government gained im- 
measurably in lands and in power; while it 
was still more far-reaching in aiding the Amer- 
ican ambassador, John Jay, in bringing to a 

201 . 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

reasonable conclusion tlie terms of the treaty 
lie was negotiating with the English ministry 
in regard to their retention of garrisons on 
American soil. The news of this battle reach- 
ing London, it was felt that all hope of further 
aid from the Indians was at an end, and orders 
were given for the evacuation of the British 
forts in American territory. Also, the battle 
of the Miami put an end to vexations arising 
from a cherished dream of the Spanish authori- 
ties that their dominion in America might some 
day be recovered. Nor must it be forgotten 
that in the flush of victory, the factions at the 
national capital were reconciled for a season, 
and the stain of recent defeats wiped from 
American arms. 

On September 14, 1794, after having accom- 
plished his purpose, General Wayne and his 
army left Fort Defiance and returned to Greene- 
ville for winter quarters. Preliminary articles 
were entered into, January 1, 1795, and hos- 
tages left with General Wayne for the safe de- 
livery of prisoners in possession of the Indians. 
Elated at the victory of his commander-in-chief, 

202 




The I real V willi I lie liidii 



THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER 

President Washington forthwith issued a com- 
mission, appointing General Wayne sole com- 
missioner, with full powers to negotiate and 
conclude a treaty with all the Indians north and 
west of the Ohio. In these negotiations Gen- 
eral Wayne displayed the same wisdom and 
prudence, tempered by humanity, that had made 
him conspicuous as a military leader. He 
treated the chiefs and warriors with the great- 
est courtesy and frankness ; explained to them 
the views of the government, and just what it 
expected of them. In return for their cession 
of lands they received $20,000 in goods, which 
were distributed among the Indians present, 
while another annuity, amounting to $9,500, 
was granted to the tribes represented. By this 
straightforward course he gained their confi- 
dence and respect. As a last word, he told 
them that they were ** children and no longer 
brothers.'' Definite terms of peace were con- 
cluded on August 17, 1795, and the Indians re- 
turned to their homes well pleased. 

The treaty of Greeneville also met the warm 
approval of the government, for by its terms 

203 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

a vast tract of territory west of the OMo and 
northwest to Detroit was ceded to the United 
States. The lines enclosing the Indian territory 
were drawn from Lake Erie along the Cuyahoga 
River to Portage, hence west to the Maumee, 
down that river to the lake (Erie) and thence 
to the place of beginning. Within these lines 
the claim of the Indians to territory was ac- 
knowledged, and beyond them lay the land of 
the whites. By its favorable terms the treaty 
of Greeneville had thus procured for the gov- 
ernment land to the value of millions, and, what 
is of more importance, a peace which lasted un- 
interruptedly for seventeen years. 

The treaty concluded, General Wayne, who 
had lived in the wilderness for three years, prac- 
tically without news of the outside world, re- 
turned to Pennsylvania. His progress was that 
of a conquering hero. On his approach to Phila- 
delphia all business was suspended, and four 
miles from the city he was met with three 
troops of light horse. The newspapers of the 
day give the following account : **0n his cross- 
ing the SchuylkiU a salute of 15 cannon was 

204 



THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER 

fired from Centre Square by a party of artil- 
lery. He was ushered into the city by the ring- 
ing of bells and other demonstrations of joy, 
and thousands of citizens crowded to see and 
welcome the return of their brave general, 
whom they attended to the City Tavern, where 
he alighted. In the evening a display of fire- 
works was exhibited.'' This was his one great 
day — ^when all men acknowledged the worth of 
his work. 

President Washington, in a message to Con- 
gress, gratefully acknowledged the exploits of 
General Wayne and the vast consequences 
likely to follow them and an attempt was made 
to have fitting acknowledgments made in the 
House of Representatives. Again party jeal- 
ousy deprived the general of his just deserts, 
and the House adopted the following resolu- 
tion: 

** Resolved Unanimously, that the thanks of 
this House be given to the brave officers and 
soldiers of the Legion under the orders of Gen- 
eral Wayne for their prudence and bravery." 

During the winter of 1796, opposition to the 
205 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

enforcement of Jay's treaty had become so vio- 
lent that the probable refusal of Congress to 
make the necessary appropriations for carrying 
it into effect led to the belief that another war 
with Great Britain was impending, a war loudly 
demanded by the * * Jingoists ' ' of that day. Since 
the treaty involved the right of the English to 
retain their fortifications on our frontier, and 
by holding that vantage ground on American 
territory they might again seek the alliance of 
the Indians and involve the Western lands in 
warfare, it was of the utmost importance that 
the articles of the treaty be promptly carried 
out. On April 30, the memorable debate on this 
bill was concluded, and by a vote of 51 to 48, 
the House decided to make the appropriation 
in question, and orders were sent to the British 
These measures had been taken just in time, 
commanders to evacuate their forts, 
for news came that the English had been solicit- 
ing the aid of the Indians for a new campaign 
in the Northwest Territory, and at this critical 
juncture, General Wayne was selected as the 
one man who could accomplish the delicate and 

206 



THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER 

hazardous mission of taking possession of the 
British strongholds in the name of the United 
States government. One writer says: **He 
knew the English on the border, with their 
allies, the Indians, and they knew him. More- 
over, the man who had won the territory was the 
one to whom the honor of receiving it was due." 
Under these circumstances, charged with full 
discretionary powers, General Wayne was sent, 
in June, 1796, to the British posts at Detroit, 
Michelimackinack, Oswego, and Niagara. On 
his approach the Indians at once became 
friendly; he was received in the most courteous 
manner by the English officers in command of 
the garrisons of the different forts; and in no 
case did he meet any obstacle in rendering his 
last great service to his country. He reached 
Detroit in September, where he was welcomd by 
demonstrations from the settlers he had saved, 
and the red men who had been his foe. After 
remaining for two months at this post, on the 
seventeenth of November, he sailed from De- 
troit for Presqu'isle, the site of the present city 
of Erie, the last station on his itinerary. The 

207 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

day before he landed, he was seized with a vio- 
lent attack of gout, and was taken ashore in 
a dying condition. 

He was at once removed to the quarters of 
the commandant of the post, and lay for many 
days in the most excruciating agony. Surgical 
skill was unable to reach him, and at last, on 
December 15, he breathed his last a few weeks 
before his fifty-second birthday. He was buried, 
according to his wish, at the foot of the flag- 
staff on a high hill, called Garrison Hill, north 
of the site of the present Soldiers' Home. In 
1809, Colonel Isaac Wayne caused his illustrious 
father's remains to be moved and interred in 
the family burying ground attached to St. Da- 
vid's Church, at Radnor — ^the same St. David's 
a writer has thus beautifully described : 

**As a place of worship, its location is essen- 
tially happy. But not until you are almost upon 
it, as you approach it is the unobtrusive little 
sanctuary seen, peeping from among the trees 
which conceal it from view — ^thus, as it were, 
shutting out the world and all those cares and 

208 



THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER 

objects not in unison with the feeling of holy- 
meditation. . . . There is, however, in the yard, 
one, at least, whose name fills a conspicuous 
place in the page of his nation's history — a 
monument more enduring than brass. The in- 
dividual alluded to is the late Major-General 
Anthony Wayne. ' ' 

In 1876, the empty grave at Erie was dis- 
covered, and in 1879, the Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania appropriated $1,500.00 for the erection 
of a suitable monument on the spot. The com- 
mittee on erection adopted as a model for the 
monument which now stands at Erie, the old 
block-house in which the hero died. The follow- 
ing is the inscription which commemorates his 
deeds : 

MAJOE-GENERAL 

ANTHONY WAYNE 

BORN AT WAYNESBURGH 

IN CHESTER COUNTY 

STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 

A.D. 1745 

APTER A LIFE OF HONOR AND USEFULNESS 

HE DIED IN 1796, 

209 



THE HERO OF STONY POINT 

ox THE SHOEES OF LAKE ERIE 

COMMANDEE-IN^-CHIEP OF THE AEMY OF 

THE UNITED STATES. 

HIS MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS 

ARE CONSECRATED 

IN THE HISTORY OF HIS COUNTRYMEN. 

HIS REMAINS 

ARE HERE DEPOSITED 

All of which is true ; but the last sentence has 
caused some confusion to exist as to his final 
resting-place. 

Well might it be written of Anthony Wayne 
as was written of a great explorer and inscribed 
on his tombstone, 

**He was a man who cherished a task for its 
bigness and took to it with a fierce joy.'' 

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